Frozen sections are diagnosed by the pathologist while a patient is undergoing surgery, often under general anesthesia, for the purpose of rapid diagnosis which may be used to make immediate treatment decisions or to confirm that diagnostic tissues have been sampled for further study. As a result, frozen section diagnosis is often a highly demanding situation for the pathologist who must render a diagnosis quickly and is a basis for critical decisions to the surgeon. In addition to the need for rapid recall of differential diagnoses, there are many pitfalls and artifacts that add to the risk of frozen section diagnosis that are not present with permanent sections of fully processed tissues that can be examined in a more leisurely fashion. Most standard pathology textbooks, both general and subspecialty, largely ignore the topic of frozen section. Few textbooks have ever focused exclusively on frozen section diagnosis and those textbooks that have done so are now out-of-date and have limited numbers of black and white figures.

Frozen Section Library: Pleura provides a convenient, user-friendly handbook to expedite use when performing intraoperative consultations on pleural specimens. This book is divided into chapters that emphasize the common questions that a pathologist must answer on frozen section examination and the pitfalls associated with those specific diagnoses. The diagnostic issues impacting immediate surgical decision-making are color illustrated and discussed succinctly, including a complex array of primary and secondary neoplasms of the pleura that have overlapping histologic features and the well-known problems of reactive atypia versus cancer in pleural tissue.

As a handbook for practicing pathologists, this book is an indispensable aid to diagnosis and avoiding dangers in one of the most challenging situations that pathologists encounter. Rapid consideration of differential diagnoses and how to avoid traps caused by frozen section artifacts will be readily accessible to the users of this handbook. Tables provide guidance for various categories of differential diagnoses. Currently, there is no other up-to-date single-source reference specifically focused on frozen sections of the pleura.

This book will be highly valuable to practicing surgical pathologists, both community and academic, and to pathology residents and fellows. The perspectives provided will also be valuable to thoracic surgeons and especially to surgery residents and thoracic surgery fellows who must answer questions about pathology and frozen section on their board examinations.