Intraoperative pathologic consultation. An audit of 1,000 recent consecutive cases.

In order to assess the accuracy of the intraoperative consultation, or "frozen section," a retrospective review of 1,000 consecutive intraoperative consultations was performed. We present these data as a quality assurance assessment and as an update to a body of older literature examining the accuracy of the frozen section. The indications for intraoperative consultation and types of specimen submitted have changed in recent years, and these changes are related to the results in the present study. The increasingly important role of intraoperative cytology as an adjunct to and, in many cases, a replacement for frozen section is also emphasized.