Skin biopsies
Please send large (6-8mm diameter) punch or ellipse biopsies whenever possible. Biopsy sides need to be parallel, at right angles to the surface and the biopsy should reach the subcutaneous fat. (Cold sterilise punches to ensure they are sharp). Place biopsies subcutaneous (sticky) side down on a small piece of card or tongue depressor for a few seconds only until adherent before adding to fixative. Include lesions at three stages.

Choose early lesions except in primary alopecias, when a large biopsy of a well-developed lesion is most important (ellipse not punch and in direction of hair growth). The direction of hair growth should be gently marked on skin with a marker pen before taking the biopsy