Inflation of lung biopsies for frozen section.

It is widely accepted that fixation inflation of lung surgical specimens, including open lung biopsies, greatly aids histologic examination and diagnosis. This method is not, however, appropriate for frozen section material. To obviate this problem, we have inflated the specimen with the embedding medium used for frozen section. This procedure provides inflation of the lung sample, increases the ease with which the biopsy is sectioned in the cryostat, and also reduces the shattering commonly seen in standard frozen sections of lung.