Utility of Dermoscopy in Preoperative Delineation of Basal Cell Carcinoma in Mohs Micrographic Surgery: A Prospective Single-centre Study of 98 Cases

Dermoscopy is a widely used non-invasive technique for the clinical diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma. It has been reported that its use in the preoperative delineation of basal cell carcinoma in Mohs micrographic surgery can help reduce the number of steps required to obtain negative margins and decreases the resulting surgical defect. This prospective single-center study in 98 patients found that dermoscopy helps reduce the resulting surgical defect compared to delimitation by visual inspection alone in basal cell carcinomas with low-risk histologic subtypes (superficial and nodular), although it does not reduce the number of Mohs micrographic surgery steps. Its use does not provide benefits in tumors with high-risk histology. A greater tendency of dermatologists to perform pre-surgical delimitation with dermoscopy has been observed in low-risk subtypes and in female patients.