Surgical pathology

Surgical Pathology is a medical specialty that involves the examination of tissues removed from living patients during surgery to help diagnose a disease and determine a treatment plan. It is one of the most significant and time-consuming areas of practice for most anatomical pathologists.

Overview

Surgical pathology includes both the physical examination of the tissue with the naked eye, as well as examining processed tissue under a microscope. New techniques of examination of tissue and cell specimens involve molecular diagnostics (DNA/RNA analysis).

Process

The process begins with surgery, biopsy, or autopsy. The tissue is removed and then sent to the pathology lab where it is processed. This involves slicing the tissue and mounting it onto glass slides, staining the tissue to show the details and then examining these slides under a microscope.

Gross Examination

Gross examination involves the visual inspection of the specimen with the naked eye. This can involve a simple visual inspection, but often involves more complex tasks such as dissection, slicing, and preparing the tissue for histological examination.

Histopathology

Histopathology involves the examination of mounted tissue sections under the microscope. This is the most important tool of the surgical pathologist in making a diagnosis of the disease present in the tissue.

Frozen Section Procedure

The Frozen section procedure is a pathological laboratory procedure to perform rapid microscopic analysis of a specimen. It is used most often in oncological surgery. The technical name for this procedure is cryosection.

See Also

• Anatomical pathology
• Clinical pathology
• Histopathology
• Molecular pathology
• Forensic pathology

References

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