| Abstract: |
Diagnosis of skin lesions traditionally relies on clinical inspection followed by biopsy for histopathological confirmation. Although a skin biopsy seems like a trivial process compared to acquiring biopsies from other deep-seated organs, it remains an invasive procedure that can cause pain, bleeding, infection, and scarring. A biopsy is problematic for patients with multiple skin lesions, especially when they are located on the face (related to cosmetic concerns) [1, 2] or sensitive sites of genitalia. It may also be difficult in elderly or diabetic patients, who are prone to poor wound healing. Moreover, approximately 80% of biopsies for diagnosing skin cancers are benign, adding unnecessary trauma and cost [3–5]. A biopsy is also a terminal event, which makes it unsuitable for longitudinal monitoring of skin lesions during treatment. Likewise, even though histopathology is the gold standard for diagnosis, it is unable to render an immediate real-time diagnosis at the bedside due to necessary time-consuming tissue processing (tissue fixation, cutting, and staining) prior to evaluation by pathologists. Furthermore, only a fraction of the biopsied tissue is used for histopathological evaluation, which may miss early and focal changes in a given lesion. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024. |
