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Patients with skin cancers, often in very cosmetically sensitive areas like the head or neck, may qualify for mohs surgery. One tool that we as doctors use to help to determine
whether a particular type of skin cancer or a particular patient qualifies for mohs surgery is the mohs appropriate use criteria. This is a tool that we can help to determine whether any particular patient would be best treated by mohs surgery. What patients can expect when they come in for mohs is to see me and greeted by my team. We’ll then discuss treatment options, what mohs pertains, and afterwards once all questions are answered, we will start by numbing the skin. Once the skin is numbed, we will then remove the skin cancer. The skin cancer will then be tested under a microscope. That will allow us to take a look and make sure that all the skin cancer has been removed. Sometimes it requires us to go back and to take a little bit more skin in order to ensure that the cancer has been completely removed. Once that process is done, we’ll have a surgical wound. That surgical wound can then be either closed using a plastic surgery techniques by either myself or my surgical colleagues or in some cases can even be left to heal on its own. For our more complex cases, we’ll often times collaborate with our surgeons and surgical sub specialists in order to ensure that the patient has the best cosmetic outcome possible. So, one of the benefits of mohs surgery is that it’s often times done in one day. If you come in in the morning, oftentimes by the afternoon, you’re completely cured of the cancer. It’s important when patients seek out a provider that they find a dermatologist who is fellowship trained and board-certified in the treatment of dermatologic oncology and mohs micrographic surgery. Here at UAMS, I am a double board certified and fellowship trained mohs surgeon and dermatologist. And so I’m looking forward to taking care of your skin needs.
