Background: Intraoperative squash smear cytology is a simple and reliable technique for rapid intraoperative diagnosis of neurosurgical specimens. The study was designed to assess the accuracy of intraoperative squash smear in the diagnosis of central nervous system (CNS) space-occupying lesions.
Materials and methods: One hundred and fifty cases of CNS space-occupying lesion were studied in a period of 15 months. Smears were prepared from the biopsy sample obtained at the time of operation and were stained with rapid hematoxylin and eosin method.
Results: One hundred and forty-one cases showed complete correlation with histopathology, two cases showed partial correlation, and seven cases were discrepant. The overall diagnostic accuracy was found to be 94%.
Conclusion: Intraoperative squash smear thus provides diagnosis with fair accuracy in brain tumors and is of great value in intraoperative consultation.
Keywords: Central nervous system tumors; cytopathology; intraoperative; squash cytology.