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

AIM

The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of intraoperative frozen section of ovarian tumors and to analyze the factors that influence the accuracy.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We compared the frozen section diagnosis of 218 ovarian tumors with their final diagnosis in paraffin sections, over a period of 10 years from 1999 to 2008.

RESULTS

Results were analyzed on two parameters: (i) status of malignancy and (ii) histological type. The overall accuracy was 95%. The sensitivity for benign, borderline and malignant tumors was 99.3%, 86.66% and 96.3%, respectively. The corresponding specificities were 92.6%, 97% and 100%. Most of the discrepant cases were of borderline category. The overall accuracy for histological diagnosis was 80.7%. The number of sections examined at frozen and paraffin had a statistically significant association with the accuracy of frozen section.

CONCLUSION

Frozen section diagnosis is of high quality at our center with a few exceptions in borderline category. The numbers of sections examined have a statistically significant influence on the accuracy of frozen section of ovarian masses.