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Mohs Surgery

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Evidence-Based Procedural Dermatology

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Abstract

In the early 1940s, Dr. Frederic Mohs first published a technique for the removal of skin cancers utilizing in vivo tissue fixation by the application of a zinc chloride paste directly to the skin, followed by excision and specimen mounting for histologic evaluation the next day. The procedure was based on the principles that cutaneous malignancies grow in a contiguous manner from a central origin and complete removal is necessary and sufficient for local tumor control. Since that time, the practice of Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) has evolved into the fresh tissue technique with frozen sections . This procedure omits fixation of the tissue in situ prior to excision and rapidly processes the tissue after excision using an embedding medium and a cryostat to freeze and section the specimen prior to histologic staining. MMS is divided into two phases: surgery and pathology.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, St Helens Hospital, St Helens, UK

    Arif Aslam

  2. Stanford University Medical Center, Department of Dermatology, Redwood City, CA, USA

    Sumaira Z. Aasi

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  1. Arif Aslam
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  2. Sumaira Z. Aasi
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Correspondence to Sumaira Z. Aasi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Murad Alam

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Aslam, A., Aasi, S.Z. (2019). Mohs Surgery. In: Alam, M. (eds) Evidence-Based Procedural Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02023-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02023-1_4

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