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

Abstract

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.