A study on the commonest dilemmas in differential diagnosis and other factors that influence the decision to perform skin biopsy in dermatological practice

Skin biopsy is a well-known and reliable method for allying the dermatologistin overcoming the diagnostic dilemmas which occur during the patients’consultations. However before performing this procedure the dermatologist has totake under consideration several factors affecting their decision. The first part of thisstudy is aimed in reviewing these factors and describing the issues both the clinicianand the dermatopathologist are forced to resolve.The second part is a retrospective clinicopathological cohort study of 6816skin biopsies included in 5941 histopathology report forms performed in the “AndreasSyggros” Hospital of Athens, Greece during the years 2004-2006. Descriptivestatistics were performed for gender, age, skin biopsy location, hospital departmentsthat requested the procedure, the suggested clinical diagnoses, differential diagnoses,the dermatopathological diagnoses and the correlation between the clinical andhistopathological diagnosis. The chi-square criterion was applied both for one-wayand contingency tables. Furthermore, a topographic anatomy coding system wasdeveloped along with an ad hoc coding system for skin diseases in order to meet therequirements of this study