Benign lesion facts

Introduction

The fortunate fact is that most skin lesions experienced bya large number of people are actually benign. Still, the patient needs to havesome concern because only a proper diagnosis can confirm that. A large numberof various different dermatologic medical conditions makes the proper andcorrect diagnosis a rather challenging task to perform. All skin lesions needto be evaluated in a systemic way. A large number of different factorsdetermine the diagnose and the treatment plan which follows it. Diagnosisrequires histologic examination of a skin biopsy. There are three differentways of defining skin lesions and those include unclear, most likely malignantand most likely benign,. Suspicious categories require full thickness skinbiopsy. If a person is diagnosed with a benign skin lesion, it usually does notrequire a surgical procedure, fortunately enough.

Definition

In order to define a lesion properly there are certaincharacteristics which require attention and those include intralesionalcharacteristics, physical characteristics of a lesion and characteristicsoutside of the lesion. When characteristics outside of the lesion areconsidered they include anatomic location of the lesion, sun exposure to thearea, associated symptoms, ethnicity, patient age and several otherfactors. The exterior physical appearanceof the lesion is described by the gross morphologic terms which are visiblewith the naked eye. Histologic terms which can be associated with the lesionare the ones which refer to all the different characteristics which can only beobserved with microscopic pathology examinations. In order to understand them,one needs to have knowledge of the anatomical layout of the skin, especiallythe extracellular matrix and the associated cells of the affected area.

Surgical Treatment and Biopsy

Surgical treatment of the lesions may consist of totalexcision of the affected mass or it can only be applied on the partial tissueswhich are taken for the sampling. The excision itself is performed mainly so thatthe visual insult to the patient can be removed and an accurate diagnosis ofthe tissue can be performed. The excisionof small benign lesions is a fairly simple process and it can be performed bywithout any extensive surgical background. Incisional biopsy is usuallyrecommended when total excision of a skin lesion cannot be performed.Excisional biopsy is a completely different procedure because it involves acomplete removal of the skin lesion. There are also several other types of biopsywhich can be utilized and those include punch biopsy and shave biopsy.