The Importance of Frozen Section-Controlled Excision in Recurrent Basal Cell Carcinoma of the Eyelids

OBJECTIVES: To show the importance of frozen section-controlled excision to avoid the re-recurrence of recurrent basal cell carcinoma (BCC) of the eyelids.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-five cases who underwent eyelid tumor excision in different centers and were admitted to our clinic with recurrent eyelid tumors. Recurrent tumors were resected by excision 1-2 mm from the tumor's visible margin and sent to pathology for frozen section examination. Eyelid reconstructions with flap and graft were performed after confirming that the surgical margins were negative.

RESULTS: Twenty-one (60%) of our patients were male and 14 (40%) were female. Median age of our group was 63.4±14.2 years. Excision and sending the excised material for frozen section control was performed once for 11 patients, twice for 12 patients, 3 times for 8 patients and 4 times for 4 patients to confirm that the surgical margins were clean. All pathology samples were reported as BCC. All patients had eyelid reconstruction with flap and graft. Recurrence was detected in 2 patients (5.7%) during 1 to 8 years (mean 4.3 years) of follow-up and those patients were reoperated; no recurrence was detected in the remaining 33 patients (94.3%).

CONCLUSION: Frozen section control can provide low re-recurrence rate in patients with recurrent BCC of the eyelids.