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Surgical pearl
Fully digital Mohs map for micrographic surgery

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Surgical challenge

Mohs micrographic surgery provides the highest cure rate for nonmelanoma skin cancer, and recurrence rates have been tied to both inherent tumor biology as well as surgeon error.1, 2, 3 Mapping errors represent a source of potential error, and thus, the advent of digital imaging presents a significant opportunity for the dermatologic surgeon. Prior descriptions of photographic and digital Mohs maps have relied on either printing and scanning digital photographs or, more recently, uploading

Solution

A fully digital Mohs map can be created using an iPad, iPhone, or similar tablet or smartphone and edited using built software. The surgeon or assistant takes a photograph of the original tumor or defect and, using built-in markup editing tools, overlays a color-coded Mohs map. After slide review, additional tumors can be highlighted directly on the digital Mohs map, if needed (Fig 1).

Digital Mohs maps have been proposed in the past; however, all prior descriptions required the digital image to

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    Errors in the interpretation of Mohs histopathology sections over a 1-year fellowship

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  • J.I. Ellis et al.

    Mohs math–where the error hides

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (3)

  • Mohs micrographic surgery: a review of indications, technique, outcomes, and considerations

    2021, Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia
    Citation Excerpt :

    For correlation with the surgical defect, a two-dimensional map of the lesion and corresponding area is drawn using the same colors to identify each marking. Another option is to create a digital Mohs map by photographing the wound area and coloring the markings on the tablet/computer.33,34 The choice of mapping is influenced by surgeon preference or training and added to the clinic protocol.

  • Where Is 12 o'Clock? A Survey of Skin Surgical Specimen Orientation Among Dermatologists

    2021, Dermatologic Surgery

  • A Survey of mohs tissue tracking practices

    2019, Dermatologic Surgery

Funding sources: None.

Conflicts of interest: None disclosed.

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© 2017 by the American Academy of Dermatology, Inc.