A frozen section is appropriate:
(1) to provide useful information to a surgeon during an operation
(2) to determine if sufficient diagnostic material has been obtained
A frozen section is inappropriate if:
(1) A lesion is small and may be lost or distorted by the frozen section.
(2) The tissue is highly infectious.
(3) A frozen section is known to be unreliable in making the diagnosis.
(4) The tissue cannot be submitted for frozen section (bone, other).
A frozen section is unnecessary if:
(1) the information will not impact surgery in any way.
(2) the diagnosis is dependent on ancillary studies (flow cytometry, etc).
Gray areas exist that may impact an individual case.
