Diagnoses made by frozen-section examination of surgical specimens in a small Canadian hospital.

Examination of frozen sections, which is frequently used to make diagnoses at the Plains Health Centre, Regina, is expensive in terms of manpower and resources of the pathology department and should be used judiciously. The authors analysed the pathology records from January to December 1990 and found that more than 10% of surgical specimens were submitted for frozen-section diagnosis. A correct diagnosis was made in 94.8% of cases, and in approximately 1% of cases the diagnosis was deferred until paraffin sections were examined. An incorrect diagnosis by frozen-section examination was made in 4.2% of cases. In 13.2% of cases, frozen-section examination was apparently performed for reasons that were not medically legitimate. In a further 14.9% of cases the value of frozen-section examination was questionable. Clinicians need to be educated about the correct role of frozen-section examination in patient management, especially in this era of restricted hospital budgets.