The diagnostic utility of intraoperative cytology in the management of ovarian tumours.

BACKGROUND

The present study was done to evaluate the status of intraoperative cytology as a diagnostic and supportive investigation for ovarian tumours.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The present study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India during a time span of 13 months (June 2011 to June 2012). A prospective investigation was performed on 50 cases of suspected ovarian neoplasms. Imprint smears were made intraoperatively from fresh samples from various representative areas, and they were immediately fixed in 95% ethyl alcohol and stained with the haematoxylin and eosin stain. The results were compared with the final histopathological diagnoses in each case.

RESULTS

There were 20 benign lesions, 4 borderline epithelial neoplasms and 26 malignant tumours according to the final histopathological diagnosis. The overall diagnostic accuracy of imprint cytology has been satisfactory, with those of 90% of the cases correlating with the final diagnoses. Characteristic cytological patterns were noted in various surface epithelial, sex cord stromal and germ cell tumours.

CONCLUSION

Imprint cytology can be used as an adjunct to histopathology for a rapid and an early diagnosis in the operation theatre, particularly in developing countries like ours, where the facility of frozen sections is often not available, since a rapid preliminary diagnosis may help in the surgical management planning.