Mohs surgery

Mohs surgery is a surgical technique specializing in treating skin cancer. It is characterised by its high cure rate with the smallest possible scar and fewer residual marks.

The IML Dermatology Unit offers its patients Mohs surgery at its cosmetic medicine clinic in Madrid.

Mohs surgery, specialised in excising skin cancer with a high cure rate, is available at IML (Madrid)

What does Mohs surgery consist of?

Mohs surgery was developed at the University of Wisconsin by Dr. Frederick Mohs over 60 years ago. The aim of Mohs surgery is the removal of different skin cancers with a higher rate of healing and less scarring. The cure rates are close to 100% for primary tumours.

The technique is based on saving healthy tissue and improving the aesthetic results in subsequent surgical reconstructions.

Mohs surgery is performed under local anaesthetic. If necessary, an IML anaesthetist can administer a soft sedo-analgesic for greater patient comfort. Mohs surgery is performed in a sequence of precise, organized and systematic manner where each repetition is called a pass:

• Pass: removal of each skin layer, flattening of the sample and analysis under the microscope.
• As many passes as necessary are conducted to examine under the microscope that the tumour has been removed in its entirety. As long as a trace of the tumour persists, surgical procedures should be continued until we are sure that it has been completed excised.
• Once the tumour has been completely removed, the area is reconstructed through:
  • Direct closure.
  • Flap.
  • Skin graft.

Once the procedure is performed, the patient can go home with a dressing on the surgery area that will be removed by the dermatologist after 5 or 7 days. The patient is handed a surgical report and a pathology report on the day of the check-up. After that, the patient should attend periodic revisions for up to 5 years following surgery, to assure complete recovery.

Mohs surgery has a very high cure rate

Why does Mohs surgery have such a high cure rate?

The high cure rate of skin tumours with Mohs surgery is due to the fact that the procedure is performed under an exhaustive microscopic control which allows to control in the same surgical procedure the presence or not of tumour cells on the edges of each layer of the skin. This allows the surgeon to decide if it is necessary or not to remove the next layer, resulting in the following benefits:

• Remove the tumour without blindly removing safety margins.
• Reduce the amount of resected tissue.
• The size of the surgical wound is minor, completely tailored to the real needs of the excision.
• Scarring is minimized.

The high cure rate has been achieved even in patients with tumours of worse prognosis or located in sensitive areas, as well as the recurrent tumours or those that have been previously operated.

Our Dermatology unit performs Mohs surgery. Request a free informative consultation now with one of our expert dermatologists.