The role of fine needle aspiration cytology in medical-surgical missions.
OBJECTIVE
To relate a 6-year, short-term experience of utilizing fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) during medical-surgical missions in the impoverished areas of the Philippines.


METHODS
FNAC is a simple, accurate, fast and economical procedure and requires the simplest devices to implement. During medical-surgical missions to the poorest areas in the Third World countries, where there is almost complete lack of tissue processing and frozen section evaluation, and scarcity of laboratory testing, FNAC becomes a practical technique to use. FNAC in these situations plays an important role as an alternative diagnostic modality to surgery.


RESULTS
Our week-long mission experience for 6 different years of successful application of FNAC is described.


CONCLUSIONS
While the mission volunteers have gained extremely rewarding experience in these limited mission works, FNAC has proven to be a very useful adjunct in the delivery of short-term health care during medical-surgical treatment even in a less-than-ideal setting.
Reyes
Cesar V
CV
Department of Pathology, Morris Hospital, Morris, Illinois, USA. creyes@morrishospital.org
Reyes
Elisa A
EA
D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D010679:Philippines; D011203:Poverty; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D008921:Religious Missions; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014838:Volunteers