[Mohs micrographic surgery: our first 100 patients]

Mohs surgery was first described by Frederic Mohs in 1941 to eliminate high-risk cutaneous tumors. The technique involves histological examination of the margins.

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical findings and compare the grade and subclinical extension of the tumor as measured by the number of Mohs stages needed for complete elimination according to whether the tumor presented high-risk factors.

We included 100 patients with 105 tumors. In all cases, age, sex, tumor site, tumor type, histological subtype in the case of basal cell carcinoma, size, recurrences, number of Mohs stages, and reconstruction technique were recorded.

The study group comprised 44 men and 56 women aged between 28 and 88 years (mean, 72.6 years). Of the tumors, 80 % corresponded to basal cell carcinoma, 12.38 % to squamous cell carcinoma, 4.76 % to dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, 0.95 % to Merkel cell carcinoma, 0.95 % to microcystic adnexal carcinoma, and 0.95 % to lentigo maligna melanoma. Most tumors were located on the head and 60 % required more than one Mohs stage for complete elimination.

This series is characterized by a high percentage of high-risk cutaneous tumors. After assessing the risk factors independently, we found that the size of the tumor is the risk factor most closely related to grade and subclinical extension in the case of basal cell carcinoma, although similar conclusions cannot be drawn for the other types of tumor studied.