Surgical treatment of periocular basal cell carcinomas with whole specimen intraoperative frozen section analysis: experiences and review of literature

Abstract

Background

Periocular skin tumors are difficult to treat because of the friability of the tissue and close relationship to adjacent, functional structures. After excision, direct reconstruction with alike tissue is desirable to prevent shrinkage and deformation. We analyzed whether a quick intraoperative pathology method using whole specimen bread loaf frozen section analysis delivers a sufficiently reliable result concerning completeness of the excision in periocular basal cell carcinoma (BCC).

Methods

This is a cohort study by case note review of 132 patients undergoing excision of periocular BCC between 1996 and 2012 at the Medical Centre Leeuwarden. Whole specimen intraoperative frozen section analysis (WIFSA) was performed and compared with final paraffin-embedded tissue sections. Sensitivity and specificity of WIFSA and 5-year recurrence rate were calculated.

Results

One hundred thirty-nine periocular BCCs were excised. Paraffin sections of primary excision showed clear margins in 90 cases and tumor-positive margins in 49 cases. In 87 of 90 excisions with clear margins, WIFSA showed clear margins as well (specificity 97%). In 48 of the 49 excisions with tumor-positive margins, WIFSA showed incomplete excision as well (sensitivity 98%). Recurrence rate was 3.6% (5/139), with average follow-up of 79 months.

Conclusions

This study indicates that WIFSA is an effective method for histological examination of the margins of surgically removed periocular BCCs, with high specificity and sensitivity. Recurrence rates are low.

Level of Evidence: Level II, diagnostic study.