Mohs micrographic surgery: a study of 83 cases

BACKGROUND: Mohs micrographic surgery can achieve high cure rates in the treatment of skin cancer and remove a minimum of healthy tissue. OBJECTIVES: To characterize patients undergoing Mohs micrographic surgery and study issues related to the number of surgical stages. METHODS: A descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in a micrographic surgery reference center for the period of 2004 to 2010. Data was collected from medical records of 79 patients (83 surgeries). RESULTS: We studied 43 women and 36 men. The mean age was 57.5 +/- 14,6 years. Skin types II and III were the most frequent, accounting for 41% and 36.1%, respectively. The most frequent tumor was the basal cell carcinoma (89.1%), and the solid subtype was the most common (44.6%), followed by sclero-dermiform histological subtype (32%). The most frequent location was the nasal region (44.6%). The large majority of the operated tumors were recurrent lesions (72.7%). Half of the tumors measured 2 cm or more. In 68.7% of the cases two or more surgical stages were necessary for the removal of the tumors. The observation period was 2 or more years in 75% of the tumors. There was 01 post-Mohs recurrence and 02 patients had metastases during the observation period (both with squamous cell carcinoma). CONCLUSIONS: The findings coincide with those of the literature, recurrent tumors and tumors larger than 2cm needed more surgical stages for their removal, although there was no statistic difference (p=0,12 and 0,44 respectively).