This patient had a basal cell carcinoma on her left nostril discovered on a full body skin check. Mohs surgery was indicated for the highest cure rate and minimal sacrifice of normal tissue and was performed by Dr. Morganroth, a double board certified Mohs surgeon. The defect was small but the patient had a high expectation for an excellent cosmetic outcome. Dr. Morganroth repaired this defect with a flap technique that he developed over 2o years ago using skin from the nostril cosmetic unit. The localization of the repair and scar to the cosmetic unit of the nostril prevented any distortion of the patient’s nostril crease. In contrast to a full thickness skin graft that uses skin from another part of the face with a different thickness and texture, Dr. Morganroth’s approach used skin with the same texture and thickness (since it was adjacent to the defect). This fact is important since the patient’s nostril skin has dilated pores and skin grafts from in front and behind the ear do not have dilated pores.
