A thorough skin examination should be performed annually to assess for new or changing macroscopic skin lesions. It is critically important to be able to identify and describe normal and abnormal skin and to note your findings carefully, because a change in an existing skin lesion is the most common sign of skin cancer, including deadly ones like melanoma. In this discussion, we will describe the specific ways in which you document skin lesions, using a vocabulary that other clinicians will understand.

After listening to this AudioBrick, you should be able to:

• Explain the importance of physical examination of the skin.
• Describe skin lesions, explaining and illustrating each of the following: size, type (eg, vesicle, bulla), color, configuration (eg, annular, targetoid, discoid), arrangement (eg, solitary, grouped, linear, reticular), and distribution and location.

You can also check out the original brick on Macroscopic Skin Lesions from our Musculoskeletal, Skin, and Connective Tissue collection, which is available for free.

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You will get 5 days of full access to our Rx360+ program, including Step 1 Qmax, Flash Facts, Express Videos, a digital version of First Aid for the USMLE Step 1, and nearly 800 Rx Bricks. After the 5-day period, you will still be able to access over 150 free bricks, including the entire collections for General Microbiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

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