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Dr Kara Heelan
The Royal Marsden
How painful is a skin biopsy?
Transcript
A skin biopsy is usually a very well tolerated test.
It involves some local anaesthetic being injected into the area that's going to be biopsied.
This stings while it's being injected and can last anywhere from a few seconds to about a minute.
This works very quickly and then you will feel some pressure and movement, but you shouldn't feel any pain.
The local anaesthetic wears off after about two hours and usually this is well managed with over-the-counter painkillers.