MOHS Surgery
MOHS Surgery is the excision of skin cancers involves the removal of the tumour but also a safety margin of apparently normal looking skin. We determine the margins through national guidelines and international research. With some tumours this will mean that skin is removed with a safety margin that may not be involved by tumour. This approach provides a safe and robust way of removing skin tumours but where the lesion lies in cosmetically sensitive areas this can lead to larger more noticeable scars.
It also means that in some instances the defect after excision needs either a skin graft or a local flap to reconstruct the defect. MOHS surgery is a process where we remove a tumour under local anaesthetic with the smallest margin possible yet with rates of incomplete excision of less that 0.1% (normal incomplete rates are 5%).
This surgery takes far longer than conventional excision surgery but has the benefit of a smaller excision defect. Mr Potter works along side four MOHS Dermatologists. If your lesion is one that would benefit from this approach then we will discuss with you at the initial consultation. Mr Potter would reconstruct the defect following the MOHS excision.
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