Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Nov;59(6):567-70.
doi: 10.4103/0019-5154.143514.

Margins in skin excision biopsies: principles and guidelines

Richa Ranjan  1 , Lavleen Singh  1 , Sudheer K Arava  1 , Manoj Kumar Singh  1
Affiliations

Margins in skin excision biopsies: principles and guidelines

Richa Ranjan et al. Indian J Dermatol. 2014 Nov.

Abstract

Skin biopsies are usually undertaken to confirm a clinical diagnosis, to remove a lesion, and to determine the adequacy of excised tissue margin. A surgical margin is technically defined as the "edge" of the tissue removed. The term is especially pertinent when the tissue excised is suspected of being involved by a malignant process. One of the most important predictive and prognostic factors of a malignant lesion is whether the margins of the resected specimen are involved by the tumor or not. The purpose of this review is to provide an insight into grossing of a skin biopsy specimen with emphasis on techniques and reporting of excision biopsy margins.

Keywords: Inking; margins; skin excision biopsy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: Nil.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Surfaces of skin tumor painted in multicolored inks (b) Bread loafing of the speciemen depicting the extent of the lesion
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Microphotograph of the basal cell carcinoma. The base painted in green color is free of tumor ×100, H and E (b) Microphotograph of the basal cell carcinoma, immunopositive for pancytokeratin. The green ink is seen on IHC section. The inset shows paraffin block containing multiple pieces of tissue marked in different colors, for identification ×200, IHC
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Romaguer R, Nassiri M, Morales AR. Tools to facilitate and standardize grossing. Histologic. 2003;36:17–21.
    1. Paxton A. On lumpectomy surgical margins, a push for clarity. [Last accessed on 2013 Jul 16]. Available from: http://www.cap.org/., http://www.cap.org/apps/cap.portal .
    1. Taghian A, Mohiuddin M, Jagsi R, Goldberg S, Ceilley E, Powell S. Current perceptions regarding surgical margin status after breast-conserving therapy: Results of a survey. Ann Surg. 2005;241:629–39. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Singletary SE. Surgical margins in patients with early-stage breast cancer treated with breast conservation therapy. Am J Surg. 2002;184:383–93. - PubMed
    1. Ranchod M. Intraoperative consultations in surgical pathology. In: Weider N, Cote RJ, Suster S, Weiss LM, editors. Modern Surgical Pathology. 1st ed. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 2003. pp. 17–34.

LinkOut - more resources