Study of shrinkage of cutaneous surgical specimens.

Background: The assessment of discrepancies between surgical and histopathological measurements of specimens is important in order to avoid repeat surgery and unnecessary follow-ups.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to quantify the degree, time and influential factors of shrinkage of cutaneous surgical specimens.

Methods: Data of 111 patients were gathered on age, sex, localization, diagnosis and specimen width and length before surgical excision (in vivo), at 5 min postsurgery (ex vivo) and after 24 h of fixation in 10% buffered formalin (postfixation).