ABSTRACT

We believe that frozen section controlled excision in the surgical treatment of BCC is an effective method for obtaining tumor-free surgical borders and for preventing recurrence.

The mean age of the 30 patients with primary BCC was 66.1±10.03 (range, 45-82) years. Most BCCs were located at the lower and upper eyelids. In five (16.7%) patients, tumor was detected within the surgical borders after the excision performed under intraoperative frozen section control. In these patients, the excision was extended from the positive margin. Recurrence has not been monitored in any of the patients during the mean follow-up period of 18.46±6.22 (range, 12-36) months.

Records of 30 patients with histological diagnosis of BCC were included in this study. Patients were investigated for demographic information, tumor site and size, histology of tumor, and recurrence rate. The tumor was treated with the frozen section controlled excision method with a 3 mm clear margin in all patients. In cases, where the surgical margins contained tumor cells, further excision was undertaken and eyelid reconstruction was performed at the same session. Postoperatively, histological examination of paraffin sections was done for all patients.

To assess the intraoperative frozen section controlled excision method in the treatment of periocular basal cell carcinomas (BCC) and the recurrence rate.