Breast Frozen Section Outcome in the Community Hospital Setting.

The author presents a detailed analysis of 932 breast frozen sections performed at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin community hospital over a 54-month period. These 932 frozen sections came from a total of 857 women and 22 men (mean age 55.5 years and range 20.1-97.2 years). Frozen section diagnosis was deferred in 31 cases (3.3%) and dignostic accuracy for presence or absence of malignant neoplasia (excluding deferred diagnoses) was 99.2%, while strict diagnostic accuracy was 97.8%; one false positive case (pathologist judgement error) and six false negative cases (four sample and two pathologist judgment errors) were detected. Seventy-one of 324 positive frozen sections (21.9%) were followed by completion mastectomy. The author provides a detailed histopathologic analysis, discusses pitfalls and limitations in breast frozen section diagnosis, and concludes that frozen section accuracy in an active community hospital setting can compare favorably with that observed at academic medical centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]