Wound Closure 10 Days After Mohs Surgery?

the value of Mohs surgery is that when the margins are clear and the surgery is completed then you can be closed in the office.  There are times when you may need to heal before closure but these are few specific cases.

Step #1 Find out if your dermatologist is a fellowship-trained Mohs surgeon. If not , I would recommend you seek a second opinion by a fellowship-trained Mohs surgeon. Got to mohscollege.org to see who in the area is certified. They will be able to examine your case , your notes and see what is going on. If your surgeon is fellowship-trained then you need to get a better understanding of what they are thinking and what they see that concerns them that their margins were not clear. In any event some clarification is needed since you seem to be confused and possibly rightfully so.

 

There are a couple of possible reasons to delay repair: 1. The surgeon sent the final specimen to a pathologist for permanent sections to confirm the negative margin, 2. The surgeons wants to repair the Mohs defect with a delayed skin graft. Waiting for 10-14 days before graft placement improves the wound bed to enhance the chance for graft take and allows for some filling in of the wound bed to improve the final contour.