Adjunctive Confocal Microscopy Can Reduce Unnecessary Skin Excisions, Study Finds

Source: Medscape, June 2022

Using adjunctive reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) for examining suspect skin lesions reduced the number of unnecessary skin excisions by 43%, results from a large randomized clinical trial showed.

“Skin cancer management exerts a sizable burden on health systems," researchers, led by Giovanni Pellacani, MD, write in an article published today in JAMA Dermatology.

“The systematic application of RCM in the triage of high-risk patients should improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce unnecessary excisions for histopathological diagnostic confirmation, thereby reducing costs, surgical waiting lists, and delayed diagnoses."

However, they add, “the clinical application of RCM has mainly been limited to retrospective and prospective observational studies producing hypothetical estimates of clinical applicability without intention to affect clinical and therapeutic patient pathways."READ THE ORIGINAL FULL ARTICLE