Abstract
Melanomas are the leading cause of death from cutaneous malignancy. Scalpel excisions traditionally are recommended over other methods for sampling clinically suspected melanoma, but many dermatologists prefer to use shaves to sample pigmented lesions. We reviewed 103 newly diagnosed melanomas in our laboratory during a 7-month period. A total of 73% were submitted as shave biopsies. We graded the quality of hematoxylin-eosin slide preparations and MART-1 immunohistochemical slide preparations for shaves, punches and scalpel excisions. Shaves had greater mean hematoxylin-eosin and MART-1 quality scores than either punches or scalpel excisions, but only the difference in hematoxylin-eosin scores achieved statistical significance. There were fewer mean slides per paraffin block required for pathologic diagnosis in shaves than in punches or scalpel excisions, but the difference was not statistically significant. (The J Histotechnol 33(2):65–70, 2010)Submitted December 22, 2009; accepted with revisions May 12, 2010.
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