[The value of intraoperative frozen section in surgical management of thyroid nodules. Report of 409 cases]

The purpose of this study was to assess the value of intraoperative frozen section diagnosis in thyroid surgery and determine its limitations.This retrospective study examined the results of 409 frozen sections of thyroid specimens analyzed over the 4-year period and their correlations with the final histological examination.In our series, frozen section diagnosis was concordant with subsequent histopathological examination in 96.6% of cases, discordant in 3.4%. All discordances were due to false-negative diagnoses. Non-false-positive result was found. The global specificity of frozen section analysis for all histological subtypes was 100% and its sensitivity was 68.2%.The frozen section evaluation of thyroid neoplasm is highly accurate and specific. A high degree of specificity with an acceptable sensitivity is requested. However, the frozen section examination has still some limits in the diagnosis of microfollicular lesions.