title: Margins in skin excision biopsies: principles and guidelines.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Richa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ranjan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Lavleen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Sudheer K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Arava
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Manoj Kumar
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Singh
keywords: Inking; margins; skin excision biopsy