Intraoperative histological evaluation of tumor resection borders without prolonging surgery.

Frozen sections permit an intraoperative check for margin clearance during tumor surgery. However, much time is usually lost while waiting for the evaluation of the specimens, especially if they are many. In 24 patients with oral cancer, biopsies were taken from the regions of the intended resection borders before beginning with the lymphadenectomy. While histological evaluation was being performed by the pathologist, the surgical team proceeded to remove the regional lymphatic drainage. This procedure offers the advantage of being able to evaluate a large number of frozen sections without substantially prolonging the operation.