Intraoperative fine needle aspiration cytology of pancreas: a study of 97 cases

Intraoperative fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) for pancreatic and ampullary lesions was carried out under direct vision using transduodenal approach in 97 patients. Cytological findings were classified as follows: positive for malignancy, suspicious for malignancy, benign (normal) cells from duodenum or pancreas, inflammatory and non-representative smears. Suboptimal smears (non-representative, suspicious and inflammatory) were excluded for calculating decision analysis values. Sensitivity for malignancy was 90.5% and specificity 100%. Positive and negative predictive values were 100% and 50% respectively. We conclude that intraoperative FNAC is useful in diagnosing malignant lesions of the pancreas.