Understanding the Unique Benefits of Mohs Surgery

If you’re one of the thousands of Americans diagnosed with skin cancer every day, you know that learning you have skin cancer isn’t easy. Thankfully, Mohs micrographic surgery can restore your health and give you the best prognosis for the future.

At Manhattan Dermatology, two of our board-certified dermatologists, Wendy Long Mitchell, MD, and Vicki J. Levine, MD, specialize in performing Mohs surgery for patients at our Murray Hill and Midtown East locations in New York City. 

This cutting-edge treatment uses advanced surgical techniques to remove the cancer while preserving healthy skin tissues. And that’s not all: Here’s a look at some of the other benefits of Mohs surgery.

No other treatment can match Mohs cure rates

Mohs surgery offers amazing cure rates. If this is your first diagnosis of skin cancer, you can rest easy knowing Mohs surgery cures 99% of new cases. It’s also extremely effective at treating recurring skin cancers, with 94% of patients having a full recovery. 

How does it do this? By making sure you don’t leave our office until all traces of cancer have been removed. We remove thin layers of skin and check each one for cancer cells. We continue to remove layers until no cancer cells remain.

No general anesthesia needed

With Mohs surgery, you only need local anesthesia at the site of the skin cancer. Traditional excision surgery often requires general anesthesia, which comes with many more risks and leaves you feeling groggy and tired. 

You’ll stay comfortable and pain-free with Mohs surgery, without the side effects of general anesthesia.

Preserves healthy tissue

Your highly trained Mohs surgeon carefully removes all signs of cancer without harming the skin surrounding the surgical site. We take the least amount of tissue possible while still making sure you’re cancer-free after treatment. 

In this way, Mohs surgery preserves as much of your healthy tissues as possible. This leaves you with smaller scars and incision lines, so you get the best cosmetic results along with the best cancer-removal results. 

Get results in the office — immediately

After other types of skin cancer treatment, you must wait days or even weeks while an outside lab checks the tissue sample. Meanwhile, you don’t know if they got every cell and if your skin is truly cancer-free. 

With Mohs surgery, we examine each layer of removed tissue as soon as it’s excised. We let you know each time whether we found more cancer, and if so, we remove another layer. 

You don’t leave the office without knowing where you stand and if additional treatments are necessary.

Go home right away

Since there’s no general anesthesia needed, we can perform your Mohs surgery at one of our offices. When your surgery is complete, you’re free to go home right away — no hospital stay required. 

If you’re wondering about innovative Mohs surgery and the benefits it provides for treating skin cancer, contact our experts online or over the phone today.