Skip to Content

Dermatology

  • Mohs Surgery

Need Care?

Contact your health care provider for a Mohs surgery referral to Cone Health Dermatology.

For expert care that enhances your skin's health, learn more about our clinic's services.

Mohs Surgery

Mohs surgery is a precise technique for removing high-risk skin cancers while preserving healthy tissue. This procedure involves removing cancerous skin in layers and examining each layer under a microscope to ensure complete removal.

For expert Mohs surgery care, trust the highly-trained team at Cone Health Dermatology in Greensboro, NC. We are dedicated to comprehensive care for your skin’s health, and Mohs surgery is provided at our clinic by a fellowship-trained Mohs surgeon.

Benefits of Mohs Surgery

  • Offers High Success Rate: Mohs surgery offers a 99% cure rate for primary tumors and 94% success rate for recurrent tumors.
  • Provides Complete Margin Assessment: Mohs surgery involves assessing 100% of the margin of skin removed, which ensures full visualization of the tumor cells in real time. This is unique to the Mohs surgery procedure.
  • Treats Many Types of Cancer: Mohs surgery can treat basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, some types of melanoma and other rare skin cancers.
  • Preserves Healthy Skin: This technique removes just enough tissue to treat the cancer effectively while preserving as much healthy skin as possible.
  • Minimizes Scarring: Mohs surgery minimizes scarring, making it especially appropriate for skin cancers on sensitive areas like the face, ears, hands and feet.

What to Expect

Mohs surgery is an outpatient procedure that is typically performed in an office setting and is generally completed within a day. On rare occasions, the procedure may need to be completed over several days, depending on the type of lesion treated and the reconstruction methods required.

Once you arrive on the day of your procedure, your surgery team will use a local anesthetic to completely numb the area of skin being treated. Your surgeon will then begin removing thin layers of skin. After each layer, the tissue will be processed in a lab and made into slides. Your surgeon will examine the removed tissue under a microscope to check for any remaining cancer.

Once the tissue has been removed from the skin, it generally takes between 30-45 minutes before patients receive information about the status of their slides. If cancer cells remain at any of the margins, your surgeon will take more skin and repeat the process until all the cancer is gone.

After the cancer is removed and the margins are clear, your surgeon will reconstruct the wound. Reconstruction may involve advanced techniques, used to maximize both the functional and cosmetic outcome of your skin.

Watch: Mohs Surgery Demonstration

This animated Mohs surgery demonstration is produced by the American College of Mohs Surgery.

Contact Information

Patients are typically referred for Mohs surgery by a dermatologist or other healthcare provider after a biopsy confirms the presence of skin cancer. If you need Mohs surgery, contact your health care provider and request a referral to Cone Health Dermatology.

Meet Our Providers