title: [Study of skin retraction applied to the treatment of skin tumors. Mapping of the human body].
abstract: METHODS
  Skin, the main organ of the human body, is equipped with own biomechanical characteristics, highly variable depending on intra-individual factors (location, weight status, dermatological diseases…) and interindividual (age, sex…). Despite some recent cutometric studies, our review of the literature shows that there is no currently reliable analytical model representing the biomechanical behavior of the skin. Yet, this is a central issue in dermatology surgery, especially in the treatment of skin tumors, for the proper observance of surgical margins.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied prospectively on 75 resection specimens (about 71 patient(s)), for the treatment of skin lesions tumor suspicious or known malignant or benign. Room dimensions were measured before and 5 minutes after excision, leading us to calculate a ratio of retraction of the skin surface. This retraction was correlated with age, gender, tumor type, and anatomic location of the site of excision.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The power of retraction of the skin varies significantly by region of the body. It is maximum in the upper limb (hand excluded) and in the cervical region. At the cephalic region, skin of the ear and periorbital skin have capacities of important early retraction. Unlike the lower limb (foot excluded), the back skin of the nose and face appear to be a minimum of shrinkage. Age also seems to change on that capacity shrinkage, sex would have no influence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study confirms the variations in the ability of skin retraction based on a number of factors. In dermato-oncology, that power retraction could cause significant differences between clinical surgical margins and final pathologist margins. We believe it must be taken into account by the couple surgeon-pathologist, especially in the context of invasive and/or recurrent tumors.
authors.affiliation: Service de chirurgie plastique, reconstructrice et chirurgie de la main, hôpital Saint-Roch, Nice, France. pierredumas06@hotmail.com
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dumas
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Benatar
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cardot-Leccia
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lebreton
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chignon-Sicard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena