Minimizing the Scar: Advanced Techniques in Mohs Surgery Reconstruction

When it comes to treating the most common type of cancer — skin cancer, which affects 1 in 5 Americans by the age of 70 — there’s a lot to consider. As with any cancer, our first goal is to remove it as quickly as possible so it doesn’t spread.

Yet, traditional surgical approaches, while effective, can leave noticeable scars, especially in areas where skin cancers develop most — your face.

That’s why so many people turn to Mohs surgery for addressing different forms of skin cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Not only does Mohs offer a 99% success rate in curing these skin cancers, but it also greatly minimizes scarring.

Our team at Vivida Dermatology, which includes fellowship-trained and certified Mohs surgeons, specializes in treating skin cancer while preserving healthy tissue. Here’s how Mohs surgery works and why we use it to minimize post-operative scarring.

The layer-by-layer precision of Mohs surgery

Mohs surgery was created by surgeon Frederic Mohs, who performed the first Mohs surgery in 1936. Since that time, refinements have been made, but the concept remains the same — remove only what’s necessary and leave healthy tissue behind.

To do this, we first make an outline on your skin where the skin cancer lesion is located. Using these guidelines, we remove an extremely thin layer of tissue. We bring this tissue to our lab, where we freeze it immediately, and then flatten it so we can see the edges more clearly under the microscope.

From there, your surgeon reviews the perimeters of the tissue sample to look for signs of cancer. When they find cancerous cells, they mark the spot on the perimeter and then return to where you are and remove another layer, though only where they find evidence of cancer.

Layer by layer, your Mohs surgeon painstakingly reviews each tissue sample for cancerous cells, and each sample dictates which tissues to remove and which ones they can leave intact. Your surgeon continues until there's no more evidence of cancer under a microscope.

While Mohs surgery takes time, this extra work allows us to remove only the tissue we need, while leaving healthy tissue behind.

Sparing healthy skin minimizes scarring

Because Mohs surgery only removes necessary tissue, it’s especially advantageous for the millions of Americans who develop skin cancer on their face.

Through Mohs surgery, not only can we successfully eradicate skin cancer, but we also do it with an eye toward the cosmetic result. Our surgeons have steady hands, advanced instruments, and microsurgical techniques to remove the affected tissue, allowing them to spare the healthy tissue around your lesion.

The difference in scarring between Mohs surgery and traditional excisional techniques is vast, which is a big reason why Mohs is the gold standard for treating skin cancer.

If you have more questions about scarring after your Mohs surgery, we invite you to contact one of our offices in Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada, and St. George, Utah.