Dr. Bryce 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, and being their own best advocate, to give themselves the best outcome possible. http://www.mohscollege.org/ is where patients can find more information about qualified Mohs Surgeons and research the procedure.
If you’ve already had a surgical excision but failed to remove the cancer in its entirety, that’s when you should consider Mohs surgery. Sometimes with traditional surgery, the surgeon isn’t able to see the extent of the cancer. With micrographic surgery, the cancer can be tracked systematically using histological analysis, and this increases visibility. This allows parts of the cancer that are invisible to the naked eye to be identified and tracked.
The American College of Micrographic Surgery has created a guideline called appropriate use guideline or criteria, for when mohs surgery should be used a number of years ago. The most common sites that are treated are the head and neck areas. There is an iphone application where a physician can type in various information about the tumour, and an algorithm can dictate whether mohs surgery would be a good treatment choice or not. As a patient, you are your own best advocate. If a prior treatment hasn’t worked, it may be a good idea to discuss whether Mohs surgery may apply in your case with your physician.
