Role of scrape cytology in the intraoperative diagnosis of tumor

BACKGROUND: Rapid diagnosis of surgically removed specimens has created many controversies and a single completely reliable method has not yet been developed. Histopathology of a paraffin section remains the ultimate gold standard in tissue diagnosis. Frozen section is routinely used by the surgical pathology laboratories for intraoperative diagnosis. The use of either frozen section or cytological examination alone has an acceptable rate (93–97%) of correct diagnosis, with regard to interpretation of benign versus malignant. AIM: To evaluate the utility of scrape cytology for the rapid diagnosis of surgically removed tumors and its utilisation for learning cytopathology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 75 surgically removed specimens from various organs and systems were studied. Scrapings were taken from each specimen before formalin fixation and stained by modified rapid Papanicolaou staining. RESULTS: Of the 75 cases studied, 73 could be correctly differentiated into benign and malignant tumors, with an accuracy rate of 97.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative scrape cytology is useful for intraoperative diagnosis of tumor, where facilities for frozen section are not available. The skill and expertise developed by routinely practicing intraoperative cytology can be applied to the interpretation of fine needle aspirate smears. Thus, apart from its diagnostic role, intraoperative cytology can become a very useful learning tool in the field of cytopathology.