MOHS SURGERY
What is Mohs Micrographic Surgery?
Centrally located in Oahu, we offer a comprehensive Skin Cancer Center that hosts a full surgical unit where a variety of surgical approaches are used, including Mohs Micrographic Surgery. The Mohs technique is used primarily when the preservation of tissue is a priority. This would include skin cancers on the face and difficult to treat areas such as the shins and genitalia.
The Mohs Micrographic technique involves removing the skin cancer in stages or layers, and examining the tissue under a microscope one layer at a time. This ensures complete clearance of the tissue, while minimizes the margins that are excised when tissue preservation is important. Mohs surgery provides the highest cure rate (98 to 99 percent) of all methods used to treat skin cancer, while also making it possible for our surgeon to preserve as much of your normal skin as possible, thus producing a superior cosmetic outcome and shorter recovery time.
The technique is useful for removing tumors that are:
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Large
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Have aggressive pathology including infiltrating growth patterns (root-like extensions that spread into surrounding tissue)
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Are recurrent or have failed other therapies
With Mohs surgery, the topmost layer of
the skin cancer is removed.
The removed layer is divided and carefully
mapped.
When necessary, the process is repeated
until no cancer cells are detected.
Each section is thoroughly examined
and your Mohs Surgeon will determine
if additional layers need to be removed.
Mohs and Surgical Referrals
We take incoming referrals for dermatologic surgery including Mohs surgery. We are also available to do a surgical consult to determine what treatment is best suited for your patient. For surgical referrals to Complete Dermatology, please click below to download our referral form.
You may fax the completed form along with supporting documentation to Complete Dermatology, 808-627-6000, or send it to mohs@complete-dermatology.com. All transmissions will be received into a HIPAA-compliant system.
After the biopsy layer is taken by Dr. Flament, the histotechnologist will immediately freeze the tissue and make biopsy slides to stain and give back to Dr. Flament read.
Dr. Flament checks each slide to ensure complete removal of the cancer. If cancer cells remain, another biopsy layer will be taken until the patient is clear and cancer-free.