Mohs Surgery Spares Healthy Tissue While Removing Skin Cancers

Mohs surgery is a specialized technique for removing commonly occurring skin cancers while sparing the greatest amount of normal, healthy tissue.

“While surgical procedures have some degree of visible scarring, the Mohs technique results in a smaller, less noticeable scar,” explains Mohsin Mir, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic.

“Mohs surgery differs from other techniques in that cancerous cells are removed in layers and examined during surgery rather than afterward,” Dr. Mir says. “As the surgery gradually proceeds, each layer is removed and examined microscopically until the skin cancer is completely excised.”

Dr. Mir says these during-surgery microscopic examinations allow him to target and remove the offending cells while sparing normal tissue and minimizing scarring for better cosmetic results.

“Mohs surgery also helps provide better therapeutic results with a lower risk for cancer recurrence and is completed on an outpatient basis with local anesthesia. For most cases, actual time for surgically removing a layer of tissue usually takes 5 to 10 minutes. Processing results may take another 30 minutes to an hour,” concludes Dr. Mir.

For more information, call Kelsey-Seybold’s Mohs Surgery Suite at 713-442-MOHS (6647).