Frozen section: history, indications, contraindications and quality assurance.

Frozen section represents one of the most imortant procedures carried out by the pathologist. At the same time, it's one of the most difficult and most stressful tasks in the practice of pathology. The basic rule and the only correct indication for intraoperative consultation is that the result will determine the further conduction of the surgical procedure or will change the immediate patient care after operation. Successful accomplishment of intraoperative consultation requires knowledge of clinical history, familiarity with the surgical procedure technique, a keen knowledge of gross and microscopic pathology and a perfect work of the lab. Regular participation in quality assurance programs is associated with lower discordance rates between frozen section and final section diagnoses and a lower frequency of deferred diagnoses. Both the pathologist and the surgeon should realize the limitations of frozen section technique and, although no formal absolute contraindications to the use of frozen sections exist, there are situations when frozen section should be refused, although only after communication with the surgeon.  Keywords: frozen section - history - indications - contraindications - quality assurance.