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Assisting Physicians in the care and treatment of their patients for 40 years.
What is a frozen section?
During some types of surgery, it is important for the surgeon to know what type of disease process is present so that the surgeon may perform the correct procedure. Additionally, if the surgeon is removing a cancer, it is important for them to know that they have completely removed the diseased tissue before the operation is completed. When immediate guidance is required, the pathologist will be consulted to perform a "frozen section."
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Above: Lung cancers are frequently rapidly assessed through frozen section analysis.
As described above, the normal procedure for examining tissue involves processing and embedding the tissue in wax, which takes approximately 24 hours. When a surgeon needs an answer immediately, the tissue is treated differently. The pathologist is frequently called into the operating room to discuss the case with the surgeon, and the tissue sample is then given to the pathologist for immediate rapid examination. The pathologist selects the appropriate parts of the tissue that require examination and freezes them using an extremely cold (-20º C) freezer. The frozen tissue is then sliced very thinly and is placed on a glass slide. The tissue slice is then rapidly stained so that the cells can be seen. The pathologist immediately examines the slide under the microscope and discusses the results with the surgeon. Thus, within minutes, the pathologist can provide the surgeon with a rapid intraoperative assessment, to assist the surgeon in determining further surgery.