[Value of intraoperative cytology in thoracic surgery]

Cytological investigations are established in thoracic surgery beside intraoperative histological examinations. We use these intraoperative cytological investigations as an additional diagnostic option for surgical decisions at our hospital for more than 15 years. 1008 intraoperative cytological findings were compared with the final histological results in a retrospective study to investigate the security of these cytological findings. The diagnostical sensitivity for the detection of any malignancy was 97.7%. A correlation of cytological and histological results was found for benign tumors in 96.2% and for inflammatory diseases in 89.2%. The cytological and histological diagnoses regarding the real histological type of malignant tumors corresponded in only 667 of 834 cases. Due to these findings we conclude that intraoperative cytology is very useful to diagnose malignancy. However, additional diagnostic and clinical parameters have to be used for making final intraoperative decisions.