Surgical Pearl: The use of Polaroid photography for mapping Mohs micrographic surgery sections

Abstract

A ccurate tissue orientation and precise mapping of tissue specimens are fundamental to the technique of Mohs micrographic surgery. The ideal method for tissuemappingwould allow for precise replication of both the surgical defect and the excised tissue specimens in a reliable, rapid and reproducible manner. The most commonly utilized mapping technique is a hand-drawn sketch of the tissue specimens, which can be used to map and orient the tissue. Themain drawback to hand-drawn maps is the difficulty in replicating the exact size, shape, orientation, and anatomic context of the excised tissue specimens. This is particularly problematic for complex tumors requiring multiple stages or those resulting in large, irregular surgical defects with multiple tissue specimens. In recent years, digital photography has been utilized for Mohs tissue mapping. However, these digital systems are more complicated to incorporate into a practice, are more time consuming and expensive, and do not produce a 1:1 image. Polaroid photography was invented in 1947 by Edwin Land, an American physicist who devised a one-step process for taking, developing, and printing instant photographs. The point-and-shoot Polaroid camera is both easy to master and rapid to use, producing, in less than one minute, vivid color prints that retain theirqualityover time.Usingamacro feature, the Polaroid camera can recreate a 1:1 exact scale replica of a subject. This not only allows accurate and anatomically correct mapping and orientation of tissue specimens, but also makes