Accuracy of Intra-Operative Frozen Section Analysis of Ovarian Tumours

Abstract

During operative treatment for ovarian tumours assistance is frequently required to make decisions regarding malignancy status and the extent of the ensuing procedure. Intra-operative frozen section analysis may be useful, provided there is adequate acquaintance with the correlation between using frozen sections and permanent histopathological sections for diagnosis at the institution where the operation is being undertaken. This retrospective study aimed to determine this correlation. Findings from 131 intra-operative frozen sections were compared with the subsequent diagnosis from permanent histopathological sections for women with benign, borderline and malignant ovarian tumours at the Maribor Teaching Hospital (now the University Clinical Centre Maribor) between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2001. Frozen-section findings corresponded to histopathological findings in 84.7% of cases, with 15.3% false-negative and no false-positive results. For benign, borderline and malignant ovarian tumours, sensitivity was 100.0%, 76.1% and 89.0%, respectively, and specificity was 90.6%, 90.6% and 100.0%, respectively. The majority of errors occurred in diagnosing mucinous borderline tumours. Precise pre-operative diagnosis is extremely important in the treatment of ovarian tumours.

Laparoscopic management of large ovarian tumors: Clinical tips for overcoming common concerns

“…Above umbilicus 1 (4.8%) Benedetti et al 15 Benign 30 8.4 (8.0-12.2) 1 (3.3%) Salem 16 Benign 15 Above umbilicus 0 Rhode et al 17 Benign 10 18 The sensitivity of frozen section analysis in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer is reported to be 89%, and complete staging surgery must proceed if malignancy is confirmed. 19 In this study, the results of frozen section analyses and those of final histopathological results were concordant for borderline ovarian tumors and ovarian cancers.…”

“…In terms of the possibility of malignancy, surgeons should pay attention to the following during surgery; first, using an endobag, the dissemination of the tumor contents within the abdominal cavity during extraction should be prevented. Second, precaution should be taken not to reuse the suction irrigator used for aspirating the cyst contents, but to use only clean suction 4 Benign 15 13 (10-22) 2 LMP (6.5%) Gocmen et al 6 Benign 46 12 (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) 1 LMP (2.2%) Ma et al 13 Benign 3 25 (20-40) 2 LMP (66.7%) Sagiv et al 14…”

How accurate is intraoperative frozen section in the diagnosis of ovarian tumors?

“…We report a satisfactory sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for benign and malignant tumors, which is comparable to those seen in previous studies. [9][10][11] Therefore, frozen section in an ovarian neoplasm does not miss a diagnosis of benign and malignant in most of the tumors and the diagnosis is correct in most of the benign and malignant tumors.…”

Retropective analysis of 25 cases with borderline ovarian tumors

“…In the permanent sections of the patients with BOT diagnosis in frozen sections, invasive cancer was determined at the ratio of 23-27% (13) . In two large researches done in the recent years, concordance ratios of frozen and permanent sections have been reported as 62% and 85% (16,17) .…”