Immediately after withdrawing, detach the needle, draw air into the syringe, reattach the needle and express the material in the needle onto a slide. Needle tip is brought into light contact with the slide and the aspirate is carefully expressed without spraying into the air, which can cause air-drying and also can form aerosols, which are potentially infectious. Preparing proper smears is critical for the end results. No matter how expertly the aspiration is performed, if the slides are not interpretable, the procedure is totally worthless for cytologic diagnosis. (Smearing technique is better demonstrated than described)
