A prospective study on the relevance of crush or squash cytology of central nervous system lesions, in the present-day surgery

ABSTRACT

Background:Theintra-operative cytology in the evaluation of central nervous system (CNS) lesions isasimpleandrapidtechnique, and a usefultool. There is not much literature available on the value of crush cytology during the operation. The current study was planned to assess the feasibility and efficacy of intra-operative squash cytology as standalone method in the rapid intra-operative diagnosis of intracranial tumor.Methods:A prospective observational study was carried out in the department of neurology in collaboration with department of pathology, Medanta The Medicity, Gurugram, for a period of six months from January 2019 toJune 2019, on randomly selected 60 patients, aged 18 years and above. Two to three tissue bits, from different sites of the mass, were taken to prepare squash cytology smear.Results:Out of 60 patients operated, 54 had neoplastic and 6 had non-neoplastic lesions. Neoplastic benign lesions were observed in 41 patients and neoplastic malignant lesions were diagnosed in 13 patients. There was 17.67% offering a wrong diagnosis on crush cytology. Out of the 13 cases of meningioma, there was a discrepancy in 3 (three) cases.Conclusions:Crushcytologyisausefuladjuncttothediagnosisinneurosurgicalpractice.Thisstudysuggests and confirms the reliability of squash cytology, but further multicentre studies with larger number of patients may help to decide its use in clinical practice.