This 57 year-old woman was referred by her dermatologist in Westlake Village for treatment of a large squamous cell carcinoma on the right mandibular cheek. The preoperative size of the skin cancer was 3.6 x 1.8 cm.

The skin cancer was removed in two stages of Mohs micrographic surgery, and the resultant defect measured 4.2 x 2.2 cm. The wound was closed in a side-to-side repair since there was adequate loose tissue adjacent to the defect to close the wound without undue tension. The incision was lengthened so that the final healed incision line would lay flat without protrusion of tissue above and below the site of the skin cancer.