Mohs Surgery

Overview

See illustrations of Mohs surgery.

Mayo Clinic physicians specially trained in Mohs surgery perform more than 3,000 Mohs procedures each year to treat patients who have skin cancer.

Mohs surgery is the most successful technique to remove common skin cancers. It has the highest cure rate and spares the maximum amount of healthy tissue. Mohs surgery may offer optimal results for deep lesions, recurring cancers or skin cancer on cosmetically or functionally important areas (face, scalp and neck).

Mohs surgery is an outpatient procedure, performed in a special surgical suite. Patients typically receive a local anesthetic before the procedure and return home the same day. A large tumor can require most of the day to remove. See illustrations of Mohs surgery.

Conditions Treated with Mohs Surgery

Mohs surgery is used to treat the most common skin cancers, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, as well as some kinds of melanoma and several uncommon skin cancers. Mohs surgery is especially useful in the following situations:

• When a cancer has recurred
• When it is difficult to determine where a cancer ends
• Large tumors
• Tumors located on the face or another area where it's important to preserve as much healthy tissue as possible.

Advantages

• The Mohs surgeon can examine 100 percent of the tissue that surrounds the tumor. Standard surgical excision examines less than 1 percent of the tissue margins.
• Mohs surgery has the highest cure rate, ranging from 97 to 99 percent, of any treatment for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

The precision of Mohs surgery:

• Avoids removing healthy tissue
• Minimizes scarring
• Facilitates faster healing because the wound is no bigger than needed for cancer removal

• Treatment in Arizona
• Treatment in Florida
• Treatment in Minnesota