Waste of skin in elliptical excision biopsy of non-melanomatous skin cancer.

Our objective was to quantify the skin wasted during elliptical excision biopsy. This is defined as the difference between the excised elliptical area and the area of the original lesion. We used geometrical calculations of 26 excisional biopsy specimens from patients with non-melanomatous malignant tumours. Relative to the lesion area, the largest waste of skin measured was 230% and the smallest was 34% with a mean of 130%. We conclude that for better preservation of tissue when closing circular defects, patterns other than an ellipse should be adopted.