THE ACCURACY OF CLINICAL EXAMINATION VERSUS FROZEN-SECTION IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF PAROTID MASSES

Purpose: This study evaluated the role of clinical examination and fro zen sections in the diagnosis and management of parotid masses. Patien ts and Methods: One hundred seventy patients underwent parotidectomy. Of these, the data on 65 were analyzed, with emphasis on accuracy of t he clinical diagnosis and frozen section results compared with the fin al histologic diagnosis. Results: The results showed that the sensitiv ity of frozen sections for malignancy was 93.3%, and the specificity f or a benign tumor was 95.74%, with a 4.2% false-negative rate and a 6. 7% false-positive rate. Of the 65 patients, 58 patients had an explici t clinical diagnosis; 88.4% were correctly identified as benign tumors , and 78.6% were correctly diagnosed as malignancies. The false-positi ve and false-negative rates were 21.4% and 7.0%, respectively. Conclus ions: The results of this study suggest that clinical examination can provide information that is not very reliable, and the surgical plan s hould be based on intraoperative frozen sections rather than the histo ry and clinical features.