Pancreatic acinar ectasia and intraoperative needle biopsy

Intraoperative needle biopsy of the pancreas showing pancreatic acinar ectasia can present a problem in differential diagnosis from pancreatic carcinoma. Although this event has previously been described as an incidental postmortem finding, with the increasing use of intraoperative pancreatic biopsy, it is probable that it will be encountered more frequently. The surgical pathologist must be able to distinguish this entity from well-differentiated primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma on frozen section.