Biopsy
A biopsy is the removal of a small sample of tissue so it can be examined under a microscope. In dermatology the sample is skin, and it is taken when appearance alone cannot settle what is happening.
A biopsy is a sample taken so that something can be looked at properly. In dermatology that means a small piece of skin, removed under local anaesthetic and sent to a laboratory.
The reason it exists is the limit of looking. A great deal is settled by examination with good light and a dermatoscope; some questions are not, because different processes can look alike at the surface or because what matters lies below it.
Several words travel with it. Excision means removing something in its entirety, as opposed to taking a portion. A margin is the border of normal-looking tissue removed around a lesion. Histology is the examination of the tissue under a microscope, and histopathology is the report that results, written by a pathologist.
That report describes what the tissue shows. Interpreting it in the context of your history and what was seen is the clinician’s work, which is why a result arrives through them rather than directly.
Being offered a biopsy is unsettling and it is worth holding onto what it signifies. It is a step taken because a question is open, not because it has been closed. Samples are taken for inflammatory conditions and unclear rashes as often as for pigmented lesions.
Last updated .