Because of the technique and the immediate analysis, the technique allows for removal of as little tissue as possible. In conventional surgical techniques, a certain amount of normal tissue is removed as a ‘margin.’ Because the Mohs surgeon has the ability to rapidly determine if additional tissue needs to be removed, a surgical margin is not necessary. In areas such as the nose, eyelids, and ears, this is extremely important to maintain as much of the normal shape as possible? Generally skin cancers are treated with Mohs surgery. The most common skin cancers, basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer, are easily treated with Mohs surgery. Melanoma often requires large margins and sometimes additional lymph node analysis and is not usually treated with Mohs surgery. Other forms of skin cancer can be treated with Mohs surgery as well.

Now there is a surgical treatment that is available that is called “Micrographic surgery”, also commonly referred to as Mohs, that removes minimal tissue and results in far less scarring. In fact, in many cases of Mohs surgery the patient is left with no visible scarring, as only the exact area that is cancerous is removed, that can be repaired with a small graft at the time the surgery is performed. Rather then removing a large section of tissue as was done in the past, a small grid work is laid out over the cancerous area that is used as a guide for the surgeon doing the operation.

This surgical technique offers the benefit of sacrificing the least amount of healthy tissue, while at the same time offering the highest success rate. This all translates into faster recovery with minimal scarring. This surgery is performed under local anesthesia, meaning that the patient is awake, yet feels no pain. The skin is marked out in a grid-work that is used to guide the surgeon during the process that removes the cancerous tissue in increments, until its outer edge are breached and all of the cancer is removed.