RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the clinical value of intraoperative aspiration cytology and histopathologic biopsy in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>142 patients with suspected pancreatic carcinoma underwent surgical exploration and the data were retrospectively analyzed. Chi-square test (chi2) was used to compare the accuracy between fine-needle aspiration cytology and histopathologic biopsy.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 192 patients with suspected pancreatic carcinoma, 80 were confirmed by histological biopsy and 87 by fine-needle aspiration cytology, with an accuracy rate of 83.8% and 93.1%, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between these two groups (P = 0.027). No perioperative surgical complication was observed in this series.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Intraoperative aspiration cytology and histopathologic biopsy was safe and helpful with a high accuracy for the diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma.</p>