Mohs Micrographic Surgery for the Treatment of Cutaneous Melanomas of the Head and Neck

Surgical excision achieving clear histologic margins remains the mainstay treatment for primary cutaneous melanoma. Tumors of the head and neck, particularly those arising in chronically sun-damaged skin, often demonstrate extensive and asymmetric subclinical extension. Over the decades, this has proven to be a significant problem for tumors arising on the head and neck, as anatomic and functional complexities of these areas have led to suboptimal surgical treatment, yielding unacceptably high rates of local recurrence and persistently positive margins with traditional wide local excision. Patients who undergo Mohs micrographic surgery may have improved survival over those who undergo wide local excision.