The Evaluation of Intra-Operative Frozen Section Diagnosis Accuracy of Ovarian Tumors; Old Fashioned Not Out of Fashion

BACKGROUND: The accuracy of intra-operative decision in confirming ovarian tumor malignancy during the operation is vital. Frozen sections are an important intra-operative tool to determine the provisional diagnosis and appropriate treatment of a tumor. STUDY DESIGN: All records of diagnosed ovarian tumor patients who underwent exploratory laparotomy with intra-operative frozen sections request at Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital (BAH) between January 2016 and June 2018 were reviewed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of intra-operative frozen and permanent sections were evaluated. RESULT: A total of 150 cases were recruited in this study. The mean age was 45.4 years. The number of benign, borderline and malignant ovarian tumors in this study were 97, 9 and 44 cases, respectively. The overall accuracy was 93.3%. Percentage of accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for benign, borderline and malignancy were 98.0/94.7/94.0, 100/88.9/79.6, 94.3/95.0/100, 97.0/55.3/100 and 100/99.3/92.2, respectively. CONCLUSION: The frozen section results yielded accurate diagnosis for rapid intraoperative evaluation of ovarian tumors. Its high accuracy allows for an appropriate surgical plan to be made in a timely manner. Large sizes and suspected mucinous borderline ovarian tumors reduced accuracy factors of frozen sections.