The use of touch preparations (tissue imprints) in the rapid intraoperative diagnosis of metastatic lymph node disease in cancer staging procedures

Three hundred lymph nodes submitted for the intraoperative diagnosis of metastatic disease were studied by use of touch preparations (TP), i.e., tissue imprints, using the modification previously described by the senior author, the conventional frozen section (FS), and permanent sections. There were 215 negative and 85 positive lymph nodes. Compared with permanent sections, TP gave an accuracy of 99% and the FS an accuracy of 98.7%. In view of this reliability and the significant saving of valuable intraoperative time provided by the TP technique, we recommend that TP be used instead of the FS in cancer staging procedures where many lymph nodes are submitted for immediate intraoperative examination for the determination of extent of surgery.