MOHS
Mohs surgery at UC Davis
There are two full-time Mohs surgeons in the department of dermatology at UC Davis, Thomas King, M.D., and Daniel Eisen, M.D. Dr. King is the director of the Mohs and general dermatologic surgery services. He has enabled the department to grow to over 1,000 surgical cases per year. In addition to working at UC Davis, he also performs Mohs and general dermatologic surgery at the Veterans' Affairs Hospital in Mather, which is affiliated with UC Davis. As an associate professor in the department of dermatology, he offers the residents one-on-one training and gives lectures on surgical techniques. Dr. King is a board-certified dermatologist and a fellow of the American College of Mohs Micrographic Surgery. He has performed thousands of Mohs surgeries, has published in peer-reviewed journals, and has presented at national dermatology meetings. Dr. King went to medical school at the University of Oklahoma and then became a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force for five years. He went on to do a dermatology residency at Wilford Hall in Texas and did his Mohs fellowship training with Dr. Tom Stasko and Dr. Donald Grande at the New England Medical Center in Boston. His interests include cutaneous oncology and various surgical pearls.
Dr. Eisen, co-director of Mohs and dermatologic surgery, is a board-certified dermatologist and an associate member of the American College of Mohs Micrographic Surgery and Cutaneous Oncology. He received his Mohs fellowship training with Drs. Lawrence Warshawski and David Zloty at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Eisen has published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national dermatology meetings. As an assistant professor in the department of dermatology, Dr. Eisen lectures to the residents on a variety of topics, from general surgery techniques to anesthetics. He also specializes in Aesthetic Dermatology and Surgery.
Mohs surgery is state-of-the-art treatment for skin cancer in which the physician serves as pathologist and reconstructive surgeon
Method
- Remove the visible portion of the tumor.
- Then, a thin layer of skin is removed and divided into sections, color-coded, and frozen.
- A map is drawn of the affected area.
- Each section is examined under the microscope for evidence of remaining cancer.
- If cancer cells are found, another thin layer is removed from the mapped area and again examined. This process is repeated until there is no longer any evidence of cancer cells.
Advantages
- Offers highest cure rate.
- Has the lowest chance of regrowth.
- Minimizes removal of noncancerous tissue.
- Is the most precise means of removal.