A Comprehensive Guide to MOHS SURGERY

Mohs surgery is an advanced technique for removing skin cancers that combines histological analysis under a microscope at real-time with surgical excision.

Why is Mohs Surgery considered the world's gold standard treatment for BCC and SCCs? Dr. Bryce Cowan explains the types of cancers that are typically treated with Mohs surgery, and why the procedure has such as high cure rate.

In the third video of the Mohs Surgery series, plastic surgeon Dr. Bryce Cowan explains in further detail the combined process of surgical excision and real-time histological analysis of the excised tissue.

Patients often wonder why Mohs is not the standard treatment for invasive melanoma, the most dangerous of skin cancers. Dr. Cowan explains why the use of Mohs surgery is considered controversial for treating invasive melanomas.

In this video Dr. Cowan explains common scenarios where a doctor might not recommend Mohs Micrographic surgery, and might opt for another treatment modality instead.

Dr. Cowan explains when Mohs Micrographic Surgery is recommended, from a physician perspective. At the same time, he emphasizes the importance and necessity of patients doing their own research.

Mohs micrographic surgery is often used to treat recurrent skin cancers. In this video, we ask Dr. Bryce Cowan whether previous attempts to remove skin cancer can affect the prognosis of Mohs surgery.

A very common question from patients concerning Mohs Surgery is “Will I need reconstruction surgery?” Dr. Bryce Cowan explains why reconstruction surgery is necessary to optimize the final outcome, and outlines the process and importance of this with some examples.

Reconstruction surgery is required after any Mohs Surgery procedure. Typically the wounds will take over a year to completely heal after the surgery. 10% per month is a typical rate of healing, with the peak at around 2 months.

What's the difference between true risks and expectations of surgery? Dr. Cowan explains the difference.

Patients need to take some important steps prior to surgery to maximize the outcome of their procedure. The first step for a patient is to ensure that their surgeon is a qualified Mohs surgeon...

In Canada, there are only a very limited number of qualified Mohs surgeons at this stage, but that number is growing. The health care system in Canada is run at the provincial level, and currently there are only a limited number of facilities where Mohs surgeons can practice at.

If a patient has skin cancer removed with Mohs Surgery, will they see another cancer, or a recurrence of the same cancer again? Unfortunately, the answer is that yes it's highly likely.

Patients often ask whether they are likely to have skin cancer if their mother or father had this problem. Being a genetic combination of your parents, what you do inherent is the same skin types.