The importance of second opinion in surgical pathology referral material of lymphoma.

Objective: To evaluate the importance of inter-institutional second opinion surgical pathology review of lymphoma, and identify the lymphoma pathologic mimics.

Methods: The surgical pathology material of patients referred to 2 tertiary care hospitals in the western region of Saudi Arabia (King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre and King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), for evaluation or therapy for lymphoma over a 10-year period (August 2001 to August 2011), were reviewed. This study included only cases in which the patient referred with a diagnosis previously made at the primary institution.