An audit of frozen sections for suspected gastrointestinal malignancies in a tertiary referral hospital in India.

Background: Frozen Sections (FS) are used to assess margins, for staging, and primary diagnosis. FS guide intraoperative treatment decisions in oncological gastro-intestinal tract surgeries and further management of the patients.

Aim: To analyze the distribution, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of frozen sections in gastrointestinal pathology in our institution during the period of 3 years (2016-2018).

Material and Methods: This study was an audit to determine the accuracy of FS reports by comparing them with the paraffin section (PS) reports. The FS diagnoses and their PS diagnoses were noted in 1704 gastrointestinal surgeries during the period from 2016 to 2018. Discrepancies were noted and slides of discrepant cases were reviewed to determine the cause. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were calculated using the standard formulae.

Results: Out of 1704 cases, correct diagnosis on frozen section was made in 1649 cases (96.77%), 20 (1.17%) were deferred cases, and 35 (2.05%) were discrepant cases. The commonest discrepancies were seen in the primary diagnosis of the gall bladder and gastrectomy margins. The commonest causes for discrepancies were interpretation errors and technical errors. Sensitivity was 91.71%, specificity was 99.69%, positive predictive value was 98.84%, negative predictive value was 97.68%, and accuracy was 97.92%.

Conclusion: FS diagnosis is a reliable guide to surgeons for intraoperative management. Studying deep cuts and careful sampling at frozen sections will help reduce discrepancies.