Role of Intraoperative Pathology Consultation in Skeletal Tumors and Tumor-Like Lesions

Early and accurate detection of bone tumors and their staging are important since some of them are highly malignant. Intraoperative pathological consultation in bone tumors and tumor-like conditions is quite complex; however, it allows improvement in prognosis and limb salvage. Present study was conducted on 52 patients who underwent surgical procedure after clinical and radiological diagnosis of bone tumors/tumor-like conditions. Fresh unfixed tissue was quickly inspected grossly, followed by preparation of imprint smears and frozen section which were evaluated by two pathologists separately and compared subsequently with reports of paraffin-embedded sections. Clinical reasons for intraoperative consultation were to make diagnosis in 65.4% of cases and to determine resection margin status in 21.1% while in 13.5% of cases, it was for both indications. Diagnostic yield of imprint smears was 87.8% (13 malignant, 22 benign, and 1 tumor-like) and of frozen section was 90.2% (16 malignant, 19 benign, and 2 nonneoplastic) while paraffin sections could diagnose specific tumors in 95.1% (18 malignant, 18 benign, and 3 nonneoplastic). Although frozen section had better sensitivity (88.2%), it had less specificity (94.7%) as compared to imprint smears (76.5% and 100%, resp.). Imprint cytology and frozen section together provide a quick, safe, and reliable intraoperative provisional tissue diagnosis in skeletal tumors and tumor-like conditions.