Effectiveness of the "Mohs and Close Technique" in Increasing the Efficiency of a Mohs Micrographic Surgery

Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) is successful and cost effective, but may be time consuming as patients are required to wait for final wound repair until margins are clear. We propose for selected cases the "Mohs and Close technique" (MCT), in which the defect is immediately repaired after tumor resection rather than waiting until margins are clear.

MCT was only performed on tumors that had clearly de ned borders, low risk histology, whose resulting defect after exci- sion required either a primary or partial closure, and whose repair wouldn't change to a different repair option if further stages of exci- sion were necessary. Tumor data was recorded for all cases. Time elapsed from tumor resection to completion of wound closure was recorded with and without performing MCT for comparable wounds.

MCT was performed for 456 of 898 cases. Time required without MCT was significantly longer than with MCT when only one stage was performed (P<0.001). There was no statistical difference (P=0.3358) between the two separate techniques for cases which required 2 or more stages.

MCT significantly reduces the time needed for selected Mohs cases that require only one stage of excision and therefore can increase the efficiency of MMS. J Drugs Dermatol. 2016;15(12):1481-1483.