Skin Assessments

Why is it important to perform a skin assessment under indirect sunlight on persons with dark skin?

[Dr Santos]

Hi,

In physical examination of the skin, it is important to examine the patient in good lighting. Poor lighting can cause inadequate skin examination.  This is true to any type of pigmentation, especially those with dark skin. During skin assessment, inspection and palpation of the skin is done to evaluated color, texture, turgor, pigmentation, lesions,etc. Darker skin has increased  melanin concentration making it more difficult to check for other parameters. Indirect lighting will also help eliminate environmental effects.

I hope this helps. Take care and regards.