Performing and cutting frozen sections

Abstract

Cutting frozen sections is a technique that allows for the rapid diagnosis of unfixed frozen tissue. A thin slice of tissue is cut from a frozen biospecimen and then stained typically with hematoxylin and eosin. The applications of this technique range from clinical diagnosis to quality assurance in the procurement or the use of biobanking specimens. It is important that the quality of the frozen section is of the highest possible caliber in order to optimize the pathologist’s interpretation, whether the result is used for surgical management or to validate the tissue being collected for research. Herein, we describe a step-by-step method to cut frozen sections.