INTRAOPERATIVE RAPID DIAGNOSIS OF NEUROSURGICAL LESIONS BY SQUASH CYTOLOGY

Introduction: Central nervous system (cns) squash cytology(sc) has established itself as a technically simple, rapid, inexpensive, fairly accurate, and it helps neurosurgeons immensely when management is dependent on it. Most of the studies till date have proved its utility in intraoperative consultation. this study was undertaken to evaluate accuracy of squash smear Aim: cytology and to highlight as well as analyze the diagnostic pitfalls. intraoperative squash smears of two hundred Materials And Methods: and fty eight cases of cns sols were studied. Cytological diagnoses were correlated with histopathological evaluation which was taken as gold standard. Discordant smears were reviewed which may affect the management of the patient and causes were analyzed. Results: an accuracy of 91.86% was achieved by squash smear cytology. The discrepancies due to interpretational errors were seen in 21.71% cases. Cyto-histological discordance was noted more in oligodendrogliomas and grading of gliomas. Conclusion: squash smear cytology is a fairly reliable diagnostic tool in intraoperative neuropathological consultation. Thorough sampling of tissue submitted, clinic pathological correlation while reporting and awareness about the diagnostic pitfalls help in achieving reasonable accuracy