The accuracy of intraoperative frozen section of the inguinal sentinel lymph node in vulvar cancer.
BACKGROUND
Limited data are available for the accuracy of intraoperative frozen section analysis of inguinal sentinel lymph node in patients with vulvar cancer.


METHODS
Forty-four patients with vulvar cancer treated with separate incisions for inguinal sentinel lymph node dissection between 2001 and 2007 were evaluated in the present study.


RESULTS
Out of 44 patients, 3 had a false-negative intraoperative frozen section result due to micrometastasis. No false-positive result of the intraoperative frozen section analysis was obtained. We identified two studies, which exclusively examined the false-negative rate of frozen section analysis of the sentinel lymph node. Data of these 3 studies were pooled, yielding an overall underdiagnosis of frozen section analysis in 6/128 (4.7%) patients, resulting in sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of 88.5%, 100%, 100% and 93.2%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Intraoperative frozen section analysis of the inguinal sentinel lymph nodes exhibits good sensitivity/specificity characteristics for the assessment of inguinal lymph node involvement in patients with vulvar cancer.
Brunner
Andreas H
AH
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology, and Medical University, Vienna, Austria.
Polterauer
Stephan
S
Tempfer
Clemens
C
Joura
Elmar
E
Reinthaller
Alexander
A
Horvat
Reinhard
R
Hefler
Lukas
L
D000368:Aged; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D005629:Frozen Sections; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000592:standards*; D014846:Vulvar Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery