Skin Biopsy

Skin biopsy is the procedure of collecting very small pieces of skin for examination by a dermatopathologist (a pathologist who specializes in skin disease). The purpose of course is to enable the diagnosis of skin diseases such as skin cancer, autoimmune skin disease, blistering skin disorders, infectious skin disorders, and inflammatory skin disorders.

Dr. Byrne has worked with collecting and analyzing skin specimens for a variety of skin diseases for many years. He has done research on skin diseases and personally examined hundreds to thousands of skin biopsy samples. This experience means diagnostic quality samples are collected.

Dr. Byrne carefully screens dermatohistopathology labs for quality control and reliability before submitting samples to them. This may mean using a laboratory that is a little more expensive, but the additional expertise can be critical in complicated cases.

Dr. Byrne an tell you whether skin biopsy is worthwhile for your pet’s condition (for example, skin biopsy is needless in pets with allergic skin disease as it rarely provides sufficiently useful information in those individuals).

As with any procedure performed at AESCA patient comfort is paramount and all measures are taken to make any biopsy procedure as painless as possible, including prescribing analgesics afterward.

Usually, skin biopsies can be performed with light sedation (“twilight sleep”) and local anesthetic. Often, skin biopsies can be performed with only local anesthetic.

Excisional biopsy (e.g. tumor removal) may require general anesthesia. AESCA uses the most modern anesthetics, often the same as what is used in humans. No “stormy” or rough recovery post-procedure.