OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of deparaffinization of histological cuts with a 1.7% dishwashing soap solution (DWS); to determine the possibility of applying different histological staining for neural tissue after such procedure; and to compare the quality of histological sections of the neural tissue deparaffinized with a 1.7 % DWS solution with those deparaffinized with xylene. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was conducted on samples from the Clinical Institute of Pathology and Judicial Medicine, KBC Osijek. Ten samples of neural tissue embedded in paraffin were used and each of them was cut into a larger number of sections. One group of sections was deparaffinized with 1.7% DWS and the other with xylene. All of them were then stained with hematoxylin and eosin, Nissl method and impregnation method. The quality of the obtained slides was evaluated by three histologists, and the results obtained were statistically processed. Histological slides were photographed using an Olympus digital camera, model C-5050, which was mounted on an Olympus microscope, model BX50. RESULTS: During the analysis of the neural tissue slides, a statistically significant difference was observed in the quality of slides deparaffinized with 1.7% DWS in comparison with those deparaffinized with xylene. According to all scoring criteria (nuclear staining, cytoplasmic staining, structure sharpness, uniformity of staining and method-related artifacts), sections deparaffinized with xylene had better scores. Nonetheless, DWS proved to be a satisfactory deparaffinizing agent. CONCLUSION: Compared to DWS, xylene is a better agent for deparaffinization of histological neural tissue sections. However, 1.7% DWS can also be used for deparaffinizing histological sections.