Intraoperative assessment of epithelial and non-epithelial ovarian tumors: a 7-year review.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the accuracy of frozen section diagnosis of ovarian tumors and to discuss discrepant diagnostic cases.


METHODS
932 ovarian tumors were submitted for frozen section examination. Cases with a significant diagnostic discrepancy between the intraoperative and the final histological diagnosis were reviewed.


RESULTS
The sensitivity of frozen section diagnosis for benign, borderline and malignant epithelial tumors was 98.82%, 98.97% and 87.66% and the specificity 98.01%, 97.06% and 100%, respectively. There were 27 cases with diagnostic discrepancy. All non teratomatous sex cord/stromal and germ cell tumors were correctly diagnosed while a diagnostic discrepancy was observed in teratomatous tumors.


CONCLUSIONS
Frozen section diagnosis is a reliable method for the surgical management of an ovarian mass. Nevertheless, care should be taken for large tumors measuring > 20 cm in diameter, particularly when the intraoperative diagnosis reveals an epithelial borderline tumor or a teratomatous tumor with an extensive neural component.
Pavlakis
K
K
Department of Pathology, University of Athens, Greece. epavlaki@med.uoa.gr
Messini
I
I
Vrekoussis
T
T
Yiannou
P
P
Panoskaltsis
T
T
Voulgaris
Z
Z
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005629:Frozen Sections; D006801:Humans; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D008875:Middle Aged; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D055815:Young Adult