As the technique of plastic planing has introduced motor-driven equipment to the offices of more and more dermatologists, the use of power-operated rotary skin punches has become more and more common. Punch biopsy with a power-operated punch is quick and relatively painless (even without an anesthetic). It gives a better specimen for microscopic examination than a similar-sized specimen taken with a hand punch.
Power punches up to 15 mm. diameter are used for removal of pitted scars, junction nevi, small epitheliomas, etc. Such removal leaves a round wound, which, if less than 4 mm., usually does not require suturing to heal with an inconspicuous, or even invisible scar. Larger wounds leave an atrophic scar if left to "granulate in," unsutured. If these round wounds are sutured, a "tip" or "tit" These must be excised flat to avoid a poor cosmetic more pronounced this "tenting" phenomenon.
To minimize