Rapid Intraoperative Diagnosis of Sellar Region Tumors Using Stimulated Raman Histology

Background: The availability of accurate intraoperative histopathologic diagnostic tools can be an important asset to a neurosurgeon, as tumor pathology can influence real-time decision making. Currently, frozen sectioning and cytologic preparations are the standard of care for intraoperative brain tumor diagnoses. This method is time- and labor-intensive, requiring a host of skilled technicians and clinicians in complex laboratories. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy is a rapid, label-free, high resolution microscopic imaging technique that can guide surgical resection of brain tumors using unprocessed surgical tissue to produce Stimulated Raman Histology (SRH). Until now, the ability of SRH to effectively diagnose anterior skull base brain tumors has not been properly validated. Our aim is to evaluate the efficacy of SRH in providing a streamlined approach to rapid diagnosis of sellar region brain tumors.