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.

Study Design: 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.