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 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). conclusion: 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).