title: Mohs micrographic surgery: a study of 83 cases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mohs micrographic surgery can achieve high cure rates in the treatment of skin cancer and remove a minimum of healthy tissue.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  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 sclerodermiform 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 2 cm needed more surgical stages for their removal, although there was no statistic difference (p=0,12 and 0,44 respectively).
authors.affiliation: Dermatology Department, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Aracaju, SE, Brazil. flavianne.cardoso@globo.com
authors.forename: Flavianne Sobral Cardoso
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Chagas
authors.forename: Bruno de
authors.initials: Bd
authors.lastname: Santana Silva
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D062109:Dermatologic Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015580:Mohs Surgery; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D055815:Young Adult