Nolan GS, Kiely AL, Totty JP, et al. - In view of the underestimation of incomplete excision rates of non‐melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) by current guidelines, researchers sought to ascertain the risk of incomplete excision of NMSCs via performing a PRISMA‐compliant systematic review and meta‐analysis employing methodology proposed by Cochrane. Searching MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, EMCare, Cochrane Library and the grey literature (January 2000–27th November 2019) comprehensively, they identified 3,477 records. Of these, inclusion was performed of 110 studies involving 53,796 patients with 106,832 basal cell carcinomas (BCC) and 21,569 squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). For BCC and SCC, incomplete excision rates of 11·0% and 9·4%, respectively, were reported. By specialty, following incomplete excision rates were reported: dermatology 6·2% BCCs, 4·7% SCCs; plastic surgery 9·4% BCCs, 8·2% SCCs; general practitioners 20·4% BCCs, 19·9% SCCs. Relative to previous reports, a higher proportion of incomplete excisions was identified. The risk of incomplete excision may lower with excisions performed by specialists.