Rapid Tissue Diagnosis with Frozen Sections

Your body tissue gets flash-frozen solid and sliced up while you're still in surgery.

It’s called a frozen section, and it's for rapid diagnosis. We use a machine

called a cryostat, which is a refrigerated cabinet with a microtome inside, kept at a frosty

-20°C. A fresh piece of tissue is embedded in a gel called OCT and frozen solid

on a cryobar. Then, we slice it into sections just a few micrometers

thick. These incredibly thin, frozen slices are immediately stained

and rushed to a pathologist. They can make a diagnosis in under ten minutes,

guiding the surgeon's next move.