Accuracy of Frozen Section and Clinical/Radiological Diagnosis with Final Histopathology of Pelvic Masses in a Teaching Institute with a Non-oncology Setup, in Northeast India.

Abstract

Background: Frozen section (FS) is an important decision making intraoperative tool in a non-oncology center especially in a region where women are often "lost to followup".

Objectives: Evaluate the use of FS in non-oncology setup for ovarian and uterine masses.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of women who had undergone surgery with frozen section for large abdominopelvic masses at Central Referral Hospital, Sikkim, India, from July 2017 to July 2021.

Results: 22 women were taken into study out of which 18 had FS for ovarian masses while 4 had frozen section for large uterine masses. All ovarian masses looked malignant on imaging while only 7 looked malignant intraoperatively. FS detected 8 women (44%) with ovarian malignancy out of which 2 were suspicious. The 2 suspicious cases were benign on final histopathology. FS was negative for malignancy in 10 women (56%) out of which 2 were borderline sero-mucinous on final histopathology. FS for ovarian masses showed sensitivity: 66.7% specificity: 83.3%, NPV: 83.3% and Accuracy of 80% when compared to the final histopathology. Intraoperatively 3 out of 4 uterine masses looked malignant. However, all of the uterine masses were negative on FS and final histopathology.

Conclusion: Non-oncology centers are burdened with variety of benign surgeries, hence, FS is effective in detecting malignancy in ovarian tumors but not so in large uterine masses. Performing FS prevents "lost to follow ups" in ovarian tumors while avoiding it, saves time of experts while dealing with large uterine masses.