A comparison of intra-operative diagnostic tools and its correlation with the histopathological diagnosis in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity

Abstract

Author(s): Siva Bharani K.S.N, Deepashri. H. Kambalimath, Fouziya Hafiz* and Smriti Pachauri

Background and Objective: To compare the results between touch imprint cytology and frozen section and to assess its accuracy in relation to the histopathological diagnosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity. The present study emphasizes the correlation of touch imprint cytology and frozen section for the evaluation of surgical margins, considering histopathological diagnosis as the gold standard. Methodology: This study takes into account patients of all ages and gender systemically fit and healthy enough to undergo surgical procedures under general anesthesia, presenting with massive lesions or ulcerations in the oral cavity with pre-determined confirmation as oral squamous cell carcinoma of varying grades who have been admitted as inpatients at the Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery unit, at College of Dental Sciences, Davangere, Karnataka, India. The results were assessed, and the data accrued was subjected to statistical analysis. Results: The result of imprint cytology showed that it was highly significant at p<0.001 and significant at p<0.005. Using the spearman test in calculating the correlation between imprint cytology and frozen section, it was evident that both imprint cytology and frozen section are valuable adjunct intraoperative diagnostic guides for the management of malignancies as they help make a prompt therapeutic decision that may prevent surgical re-intervention. Conclusion: this study demonstrates that both imprint cytology and frozen section provide relatively accurate assessment of surgical margin clearance and can be used as a reliable adjunct to histopathological diagnosis. However, surgical margin clearance cannot solely depend on these intraoperative tools. More research needs to be done for the assessment of the utility of these lesions as these procedures can only be used to assess the presence or absence of atypia.

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