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How Long Does It Take to Remove 5 Layers in the Moh's Procedure

asked 9 months ago by schnec in woodland hills CA
Latest answer by Adam J. Mamelak, MD
Question viewed 121 times
Tags: duration, removal, skin tissue

How Long Does It Take to Remove 5 Layers in the Moh's Procedure

6 answers to How Long Does It Take to Remove 5 Layers in the Moh's Procedure

+1

How Long Does Mohs Surgery Take?

Mohs surgery is a highly specialized in-office procedure for treating skin cancer. The procedure involves removing a tumor, layer-by-layer, down to its root, while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. Every time a layer of skin tissue is taken, the tissue is processed in an onsite lab and examined under a microscope. Therefore, the Mohs procedure really has 2 steps: the surgery itself, and the processing in the lab. The surgery is quite quick. It usually takes about 5 minute to remove... more
Adam J. Mamelak, MD

Austin Dermatologic Surgeon
+1

Length of Mohs Surgery Procedure

It takes about 1-2 minutes to harvest each layer of skin. The time between layers, however, is highly variable. This is dependent on how long the technician takes to prepare the slide. In my practice, this can take anywhere from 5 – 30 minutes. Therefore, it would be approximately 35 minutes to 2 hours and 40 minutes total time for five layers. After the cancer has been cleared it takes another 10-30 minutes to surgically close the wound. more
Timothy Jochen, MD

Palm Springs Dermatologic Surgeon
+1

Time for Mohs

It can depend on how big a piece of tissue is taken with each level, as there are situations when more slides need to be made per level and that can add a bit of extra time. But I'd say 45-60 minutes is average per level. However, no Mohs physician should be pre-telling you how many levels they will need to take. No one can guess that. The purpose is to take as little tissue as needed to fully clear the area, in as few levels as possible.
F. Victor Rueckl, MD

Las Vegas Dermatologist
+1

How long does it take to have Mohs Surgery?

Mohs Surgery, named after the inventor, Frederick Mohs, is where the surgeon also acts as the pathologist and runs a lab where the entire margin is checked for any remaining skin cancer. This is different than a frozen section at most hospitals, where only partial samples are checked, and thus remaining skin cancer can be missed when the cancer has an irregular shape or growth pattern. In our office each layer or stage normally takes 30-45 minutes to excise and check in the lab. The... more
T. Wayne Day, MD

Nashville Dermatologic Surgeon
+1

How long to take 5 Mohs layers

This is an odd question. It is difficult to reliably predict how many layers a Mohs procedure will take but if your cancer requires 5 layers then it is usually quite large or deep or both. In general, to take a Mohs layer requires the patient be brought to the operating suite, anesthetized, prepped and then an incision is made to remove tissue. Then the tissue gets processed in the lab which can take a variable amount of time depending on the size of the tissue, how much fat, etc... more
Shawn Allen, MD

Boulder Dermatologist
+1

Time for Mohs

After each layer of Mohs, the tissue needs to be processed and placed on slides for the Mohs surgeon to read, this process can take 30-60 minutes depending on many factorsl. Therefore 5 stages would likely take 3-5 hours. However once all the cancer is removed after 5 stages in your example, the Mohs surgeon will then need to close the area with stitches which may take another 30-60 minutes depending on how complicated the closure is since they may need to perform a flap or graft... more
Robyn D. Siperstein, MD

Boynton Beach Dermatologic Surgeon

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