Dermatology & Surgery Clinic Orchard offers Mohs Micrographic surgery for the treatment of skin cancers. This is a specialised form of surgery to remove certain skin cancers and is also called Mohs’ surgery after the doctor who developed it. Your surgeon removes the visible portion of your tumour and then removes further tissue that may have cancer cells, one layer at a time. This tissue is examined under a microscope while you are still in the dermatology unit. If it contains cancer cells, another layer of tissue is removed and examined. This is repeated until all the cancer cells have been removed.
Your doctor may have recommended Mohs’ surgery because:
- your skin cancer has returned;
- your tumour was previously removed, but some cancer cells remain;
- your tumour is in an area where we want to reduce the amount of healthy tissue we remove, such as on your eyelids, nose, ears or lips; or
- the edges of your tumour are not well defined.
- The tumour is of a more aggressive kind
Other types of surgery for skin tumours rely on the surgeon being able to see the extent of the cancer, which can either lead to a large wound and scar if too much healthy tissue is removed or too little tissue being removed and the cancer returning. Micrographic surgery maximises the chances that your tumour will be completely excised (removed) while minimising the amount of surrounding normal skin needing to be taken away.