Mohs Surgery
Mohs surgery is the most effective treatment for most skin cancers. Eligible patients are those with non-melanoma skin cancers on the face, recurrent skin cancers, and skin cancers with aggressive histology.
The Mohs procedure itself involves surgically removing cancerous skin, layer by layer, until only healthy, cancer-free tissue remains around the tumor site. Because each layer is examined and evaluated underneath a microscope, success rates for Mohs exceeds 99%.
Skin cancer treatments other than Mohs use educated guessing to determine the amount of tissue to be removed around the skin cancer site. This guesswork can result in unnecessary removal of healthy tissue and regrowth of the tumor if some cancer cells are missed.
Mohs surgery ensures complete removal of cancer cells at the time of surgery. Since only cancerous tissue is taken, loss of healthy tissue is kept at a minimum, resulting in better cosmetic outcome. In most cases, Dr. Retief can repair the surgical site on the same day the skin cancer is removed.
Dr. Carla Retief has been performing Mohs surgery for over 20 years. She is fellowship-trained by the American College of Mohs Surgery, and is specially trained in cancer surgery, pathology and reconstructive surgery.
