Tuba Bayindir, Hasan Gokce, Mehmet Turan Cicek, Yuksel Toplu, Emrah Gunduz, Sumeyye Gunduz

The impact of the frozen section analysis on surgical strategy in nodular thyroid diseases

In this retrospective cross-sectional study we aimed to investigate of the impact of frozen section analysis (FSA) on the surgical strategy in nodular thyroid diseases. The patients who underwent thyroidectomy (n=293) were analyzed retrospectively and 138 of 293 who had intraoperative FSA results included to the study. All these patients (n=138) also had fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). The patients (n=138) were divided to 5 groups; Group 1 (n=32), Group 2 (n=22), Group 3 (n=12), Group 4 (n=17) and Group 5 (n=55). Twelve of these patients who were reported as “follicular neoplasia” in FSA were excluded from the study. According to the results of FSA (n=126), 48 patients were reported as malignant, whereas 78 patients were benign. The permanent sectional pathological examination (n=126), 57 patients were reported as malignant and 69 were benign. The sensitivity of FSA was found 78.9% and the specificity was found 95.6%, respectively. Also, FSA affected the surgical strategy correctly in 111 (88.1%) and incorrectly in 15 patients (11.9%). As a conclusion of this study we found that frozen section analysis significantly affects the surgical strategy especially in patients whose surgical strategy cannot be determined by FNAB.

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