Drying Artifact

The Pap smear must be sprayed with cytology fixative immediately (within seconds) of spreading the smear on the glass slide. The slide should be soaked so that the fixative will begin to fall off the slide if it is tilted (don't tilt it to see as you may lose some cells).

Many physicians avoid the problem of drying by leaving the speculum in place while they obtain their specimen, spread it on the slide and immediately fix it with spray.

If you are temporarily out of cytologic fixative, hair-spray is an acceptable alternative.