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Mohs surgery (pronounced moes) is the preferred treatment of skin cancer where preserving the surrounding healthy tissue is critical for functional and cosmetic purposes, such as the nose, ears, face, scalp, neck, hands, feet, and genitalia.
Mohs surgery can also be used in cases where there is a recurrence of skin cancer or if the area of skin cancer is large enough.
Skin cancers can often be very deceptive, and we do not know how wide or how deep the cancers extend until the end of the surgery.
Mohs surgeries begin by taking the area of skin where cancer seems to be present, as well as the skin around the cancer. While the patient waits, an immediate microscopic examination of the removed cancerous tissue is performed. If cancer cells are still present in the skin around the cancer, the surgeon will remove another thin layer of skin. The review/removal process will continue until no cancerous cells remain. With slow mohs surgery Vero Beach providers at Ocean Drive Dermatology are able to remove the least amount of tissue while ensuring you are cancer free.
The two primary benefits of Mohs surgery are its high cure rate and allowing the patient to keep as much healthy skin as possible. In addition, Mohs surgery only removes the cancerous tissue and leaves the normal tissue untouched. Ocean Drive offers this procedure as an outpatient surgery that does not require going under general anesthesia.
Mohs surgery is used to treat basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), especially when it is aggressive or large. It also treats early-stage melanoma and other rare cancers such as DFSP, extramammary Paget’s disease, and Merkel cell carcinoma.
All initial mohs surgery consultations at Ocean Drive Dermatology are a minimum of thirty minutes. The board-certified medical provider will review your medical history, examine the skin cancer, discuss the surgery, answer questions, and review the pre-op and post-op tasks you need to perform.
As a medical dermatology clinic partnered with plastic surgeons, you will leave the consultation knowing that after cancer has been removed, you will receive the best cosmetic surgical care.
The Mohs procedure itself involves removing the visible portions of the skin cancer, along with a layer of the surrounding skin. In standard Mohs surgery, it is the surgeon who then processes and reads the slides of the skin.
Instead of acting as both the surgeon and the dermatopathologist (a pathologist who only reads skin specimens), Ocean Drive Dermatology hires a dermatopathologist to bring a staff and their mobile lab unit to the office to process the tissue. This allows us as the surgeon to tend to your defect and focus on giving you the best cosmetic result. Once the initial layer with margins of skin is removed, it is hand-delivered to the dermatopathologist to process, stain, and read the slides.
This process takes approximately 10-15 minutes. The dermatopathologist reviews the report with one of our providers to discuss the margins of the cancer. If the margins are cancer free, we repair the defect with precision sutures and plastic surgery-grade techniques. If the margins are still present with cancer, additional tissue will be removed from the areas indicated as positive, and the process repeats until cancer-free margins are obtained. Our unique Mohs method allows each specialty to focus on the task at hand. By hiring a dermatopathologist, we ensure that our patients have the highest level of care when the specimens are examined while also ensuring that the surgeons have the time to give you the best cosmetic outcome.
After Mohs surgery at Ocean Drive Dermatology in Vero Beach, Florida, you will leave confident you are cancer free and have also had the best cosmetic care in the region.
Most patients do not complain of significant pain. We often recommend Tylenol for the moderate amount of discomfort that one may experience. Stronger medications are available and will be considered on an as-needed basis. Wound care instructions will be reviewed, and a typed sheet will be given on the day of surgery. Vero Beach Mohs surgery patients will have two-to-three layers of sutures depending on the location. The sutures above the skin will be removed in-office within seven to 14 days after the surgery. The sutures underneath the skin will dissolve on their own and do not need to be removed.
Most people can drive themselves to and from the procedure.
Most insurance policies cover the procedure and reconstruction.
There’s med spas, and then there’s Ocean Drive Med Spa. Led by Dr. Alan Durkin, Ocean Drive Med Spa is well known among industry professionals as a center for innovation.
Pioneering new technologies and treatments, Ocean Drive Med Spa constantly researches new technologies to ensure the best results for its patients. Ocean Drive Med Spa also features one of the largest laser and energy centers in the nation, offering patients treatments with the latest state-of-the-art tools to create incredible aesthetic experiences. Begin yours today with an appointment at Ocean Drive Med Spa.
