Skin cancer treatment with Mohs surgery

Mohs surgery nowadays is considered one of the gold standards of skin cancer treatment methods that help obtain clean surgical margins (that means there are no signs of cancerous cells in the wound), which helps to decrease the probability of relapses significantly. However, before starting the surgery, it’s always necessary to verify the patient’s diagnosis and carefully examine their condition to ensure minimal chance of any adverse effects and complications. Before the Mohs surgery, the patient will get local anesthesia to decrease pain. Next, surgeons will cut thin layers of affected skin cells and pass them to other medical practitioners to examine those samples and try to detect any signs of cancerous cells. If doctors see any cancerous cells, surgeons will cut down the next layer of skin. This cycle goes until medical practitioners reach the point where there are no more signs of cancer on the obtained sample. Around 97 and 99,8% of patients with basal cell carcinoma (one of the most widespread types of skin cancer) showed excellent results after Mohs surgery. Still, unfortunately, this treatment method is suitable only for removing lesions on the surface of the skin and is only available in some dermatological centers.