• Matteo Zoli, Gianluca Marucci, Laura Milanese, Rocco Bonfatti, Carmelo Sturiale, Pasquini Ernesto, Giorgio Frank, and Diego Mazzatenta.
• Center of Surgery for Pituitary Tumors and Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery, Department of Neurosurgery, IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche, Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: matteo.zoli4@unibo.it.
• World Neurosurg. 2016 Nov 1; 95: 464-468.

BackgroundThe collection of the greatest possible amount of pathologic tissue is of paramount importance in neurosurgery to achieve the most accurate histopathologic diagnosis, to perform all of the necessary biomolecular tests on the pathologic specimen, and to collect biological material for basic or translational science studies. This problem is particularly relevant in pituitary surgery because of the possible small size and soft consistency of tumors, which make them suitable for removal through suction, reducing the amount of available pathologic tissue. To solve this issue, we adopted a filter connected to the suction tube, which allows the surgeon to collect all of the tissue aspirated during surgery.MethodsOur experience of 1734 endoscopic endonasal procedures, performed adopting this device since 1998 to December 2015, has been revised to assess its advantages and limitations.ResultsThis system is easy-to-use, does not impair the surgical maneuvers, and does not add any relevant cost to the surgery. The tissue collected through the filter proved useful for diagnostic histologic and biomolecular analyses and for research purposes, without any relevant artifacts as a result of this method of collection.ConclusionsThe use of a filter has allowed us to obtain the greatest amount possible of pathologic tissue at each surgery. This surgical material has revealed to be helpful both for diagnostic and basic science purposes. The use of the filter has proven to be of particular importance for microadenomas, soft tumors, and supradiaphragmatic or skull base lesions with heterogeneous features, improving the accuracy of histopathologic diagnosis.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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