Mohs surgery was developed by Dr Frederic E. Mohs, whose pioneering work was performed at the University of Wisconsin in the 1930s and first published in 1941.
Initially, Dr. Mohs removed tumors with a chemosurgical technique using zinc chloride. Thin layers of chemically fixed tissue were excised for pathological examination. He developed a unique
technique of color-coding excised specimens and created a mapping process to accurately identify the location of remaining cancerous cells.
Over 30 years ago, the tissue-processing procedure for Mohs surgery evolved from a zinc chloride-based, fixed tissue technique to a fresh-frozen tissue technique, an innovation initially
performed by Dr Mohs in 1953 but later described in detail by Tromovitch & Stegman in 1974. This innovation reduced the normal treatment time to one visit and allowed for immediate reconstruction
of the wound. The heart of the procedure -- the color-coded mapping of excised specimens and their thorough microscopic examination – remains the definitive and unique part of the Mohs surgical
procedure.
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