Efficacy of bilateral temporal artery biopsies and sectioning of the entire block of tissue for the diagnosis of temporal arteritis

•Performing only unilateral biopsies may result in missing 13% of positive cases for temporal arteritis.•In 25% of bilateral biopsy cases that were positive only on one side, patients had unilateral temporal arteritis symptoms that were opposite to the side positive for temporal arteritis.•In 8% of cases, further sectioning of the block beyond the first 5 levels was required to identify positive cases of temporal arteritis.•These factors are vital to reduce potential missed cases that may result in blindness, stroke or death.