title: [Frozen section biopsy in the assessment of organs for transplantation].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The success of transplantation and the increase in its indications has caused organ donations to be unable to meet the global demand. By broadening the donor selection criteria and accepting so-called suboptimal donors in an attempt to solve this problem, a careful individualized assessment is required of the validity of each donor. This often implies the need for a pretransplantation biopsy study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Evaluation of frozen-section biopsy studies in the assessment of graft and donor validness in the the transplantation program of the La Fe University Hospital (Valencia, Spain) during 1998, when a total of 301 solid organ transplantations were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty pretransplantation frozen-section biopsies were performed (29 of the liver, 21 renal, 3 lymph nodes, 3 brain, 2 prostatic, 1 myometrial and 1 pericardial). As a result of the bioptic study, 18 transplantations were invalidated (30% of all biopsies). The most frequent causes of invalidation were liver macroesteatosis (7 cases), malignancies (5 cases) and renal parenchymal lesions (5 cases). Among the tumor diagnosis there were one false-positive and one false-negative results of malignancy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Frozen-section biopsies evaluation in suboptimal organ donors or donors suspected of suffering disease integrates morphological analysis in the transplantation team decision process, and affords a quality factor in the selection of donors.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Anatomía Patológica, Hospital Universitario La Fe, Valencia.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vera-Sempere
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vicente
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prieto
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gironés
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jordá
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005629:Frozen Sections / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013030:Spain; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data