Tumor recurrence less frequent with frozen section control, study finds

In surgery to remove primary basal cell carcinoma including the eyelid margins, intraoperative frozen section control had better long-term success than surgery with clinical control, a group of German surgeons reports.

R.M. Conway, MD, and colleagues at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg conducted a nonrandomized study comparing the two interventions in 145 patients with a histological diagnosis of primary basal cell carcinoma including the eyelid margins. All patients underwent surgery for primary basal cell carcinoma including eyelid margins, followed immediately by plastic reconstruction.

All patients were treated at the university between 1989 and 1998. All patients had a minimum follow-up of 5 years. Patients were split into two groups: 114 patients who had intraoperative frozen section control and 31 who did not.

No tumor recurrences occurred in the group that received intraoperative frozen section control after resection. Three patients in the group that did not receive frozen section control had tumors recur.

The study is published in the February issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.