Digital photography for mapping Mohs micrographic surgery sections.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Instant photographic print images have been used to diagram tissue sections excised for Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS). This approach is limited by the size of the print image, the potential difficulty of writing on a glossy photo print, and the cost of film. OBJECTIVE: We describe the use of digital photographic images as templates for making maps of tissue excised for MMS. METHODS: Digital photographic images of patients undergoing MMS are downloaded to a computer and printed onto plain paper. A map of the tissue excised for MMS is drawn directly onto the digital print. RESULTS: Several methods of creating MMS maps using digital photographic print images are described. CONCLUSION: Advantages of using digital photographs in MMS include speed of producing images, low cost of materials, greater accuracy of depicting the MMS excision defect, and ease of correlating the MMS map to the patient for subsequent stages of excision.