EVALUATING THE DIAGNOSTIC PRECISION: INTRAOPERATIVE FROZEN SECTION COMPARED WITH PERMANENT HISTOPATHOLOGY IN PATIENTS OF HEAD AND NECK TUMORS

Abstract

Objective: “To determine the diagnostic accuracy of frozen section for diagnosis of head and neck tumor taking histopathology as gold standard.”

Study design: Cross sectional study

Place and duration of the study: It is a prospective study held in University of Lahore Teaching Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan from December 2024 to June 2025.

Methodology: Sample size of 125 cases was were enrolled who presented with tumors in head and neck region and underwent biopsy for confirmation of type of tumor that needs intraoperative frozen section for complete resection were enrolled from the surgical wards. Frozen section results will be compared to permanent histopathology. Collected data will be statistically analyzed using SPSS software version 24. 2x2 table was built to calculate the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and diagnostic performance of frozen section.

Results: In this study, we included frozen sections of total 125 patients with mean age of 53.25 ± 12.85 years. There were more males 87 (69.6%) than females 38 (30.4%). There were 75 (60%) patients who had history of smoking, 81 (64.8%) had history of tobacco chewing, while 31 (24.8%) took dental treatment before. Among all, tumor of buccal mucosa 43 (34.4%) is more common than other sites, including mandible 38 (30.4%), neck 25 (20%), maxilla 12 (9.6%) and tongue 7 (5.6%). It has been observed that among all the cases, frozen section showed 100% Sensitivity and 100% specificity, as all the predicted cases were confirmed on histopathology. The PPV and NPV of frozen section was also 100%. Thus, the overall diagnostic accuracy of frozen section was 100%.

Conclusion: Thus, frozen section is a reliable method for differentiation of malignant and benign head and neck tumors.