Mohs Micrographic Surgery

William Shillinglaw, DO
Mission Hospital, Asheville, NC

Patient Presentation

An 80-year-old female patient presented with an unhealing post-op Mohs surgical wound on her leg, which was open for 78 days.

Microlyte^® Matrix was applied after debridement and followed by standard wound care protocol.

After just 25 days of Microlyte^® treatment, patient’s wounds were closed 100%

Mohs Micrographic Surgery is the sequential removal of layers of cancerous skin, until all cancer is removed, after each excised layer is inspected via microscopic visualization.
As a result, Mohs can take place over several hours or even days.
Though the SSI rate for Mohs is less than 5%, the increased morbidity of an open wound with advanced age is significant.
Also, the SSI rate of clean surgical wounds such as Mohs doubles with each additional hour of surgery.¹
Despite the challenge of advanced age and recalcitrant state of the wound, Microlyte^® Matrix was able to jump-start the healing process and completely close the wound after just 24 days.
Microlyte^® Matrix shows promise as a post-operative prophylactic antimicrobial wound matrix for Mohs Micrographic Surgery.

Figure 1:
A. Wound at day 1 after being open for 78 days. B. Wound is 18% closed C. wound is 83% closed D. wound is 100% closed.

Reference: (DelMauro, Kalberer et al. 2020)