Lessons from the Blurry Photo: Sometimes You Just Need to Take Another !

Analogy of the Blurry Photo and the Ambiguous Scalp Biopsy

There is really only so much one can do with a blurry photo. There is software that can make a blurry photo look a bit better and technical geniuses can sometimes alter the image characteristics so that it looks a bit better. But there is only so much one can do.

Sometimes it’s better to just take another photo.

The same is true with scalp biopsies. Sometimes the chosen scalp biopsy does not seem to be capturing what is going on. The path lab can cut more and more sections but often the same ambiguous findings come out.

You can fly the biopsy across the country or across the world so that another person can look at it under the microscope too. But sometimes a confusing biopsy just keeps looking confusing.

Blurry stays blurry no matter what you do 😩

Getting second opinions on scalp biopsies is reasonable. Don’t get me wrong. There are many tiers of dermatopathology expertise. And sometimes the higher up the tier one goes the clearer the picture becomes.

But sometimes, it’s better to just take another biopsy!