Abstract

In diagnosing a brain tumor, it is essential to obtain samples from many areas of the tumor. Although there are reports about the suitability of material obtained by cavitron ultrasonic surgical aspirator(CUSA), there is a paucity of reports regarding conventional intraoperative suction. This study was performed to evaluate the usefulness of the suction fluid and the effect of different hemolytic fixatives. Intraoperative suction fluid was obtained from 2 pituitary adenomas and 2 choroid plexus carcinomas. In two cases of mixed astro-oligodendroglioma, one of glioblastoma multiforme and 3 of meningioma, the fluid was collected by CUSA. Each sample was divided into four bottles for the different fixatives such as 0.1N HCl, 10% acetic acid, 95% alcohol, and no additive. All cases were evaluated by the both cytologic smear and cell block preparations, and were reviewed with concomitant histologic diagnosis. The result showed a good correlation between the cytologic study and the histologic diagnosis and 95% alcohol was found to be superior to other fixatives in cell preservation.

• Keywords: Brain tumor;Cytology;Intraoperative suction fluid;Hemolytic fixative