Background. Skin biopsy is an established method for allying the dermatologist in overcoming the diagnostic dilemmas which\r\noccur during consultations. However neither do all skin biopsies produce a conclusive diagnosis nor the dermatologists routinely\r\nperform this procedure to every patient they consult. The aim of this study was to investigate the favourable clinical diagnoses set\r\nby dermatologists when performing skin biopsy, the diagnoses reached by the dermatopathologists after microscopic examination,\r\nand the relationship between them and finally to comment on the instances that skin biopsy fails to fulfill the diagnostic task.\r\nMethods. Six thousand eight hundred and sixteen biopsy specimens were reviewed and descriptive statistics were performed.\r\nResults. The mean age of the patients was 54.58 �± 0.26 years, the most common site of biopsy was the head and neck (38.3%),\r\nthe most frequently proposed clinical diagnoses included malignancies (19.28%), and the most prevalent pathological diagnosis\r\nwas epitheliomas (21.9%). After microscopic examination, a specific histological diagnosis was proposed in 83.29% of the cases and\r\na consensus between clinical and histological diagnoses was observed in 68% of them. Conclusions. Although there are cases that\r\nskin biopsy exhibits diagnostic inefficiency, it remains a valuable aid for the dermatology clinical practice.
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