Abstract

Objective: The overall risk of malignancy in ovarian neoplasm is 13 in premenopausal women and 45 in postmenopausal women. Differentiating benign and malignant disease with frozen section is possible during operation; however, information on patients' history, physical examination, paraclinical criteria (tumour markers, imaging) and gross examination of tumour can also be helpful in planing the surgery. Methods: This study was conducted on 150 women who underwent laparotomy due to adnexal mass between April 2003 and October 2005 at Vali-e-Asr Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Sensitivity and specificity of clinical assessment (history, tumour marker and imaging), gross examination and frozen section were calculated. Results: Based on our findings frozen section had the highest sensitivity for diagnosing malignant tumour comparing with other methods of diagnosis (88.9). Sensitivity was 71.3 for preoperative clinical examination, 83 for ultrasonography, 89.8 for CT scan, 70 for CA125 and 84.1 for gross examination, likewise the highest specificity was seen for frozen section (93.5). Conclusion: This data confirm that frozen section diagnosis is a reliable method for the surgical management of patients with an ovarian mass, but history of disease, Para clinical criteria and gross examination can help to surgeon to perform on appropriate operation in the areas where frozen section is not possible. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.