Clinical assessment, gross examination, frozen section of ovarian masses: do patients benefit?

Objective: The overall risk of malignancy in ovarian neoplasm is 13% in premenopausal women and 45% in postmenopausal women. Differentiating benign and malignant disease with frozen section is possible during operation; however, information on patients' history, physical examination, paraclinical criteria (tumour markers, imaging) and gross examination of tumour can also be helpful in planing the surgery.

Methods: This study was conducted on 150 women who underwent laparotomy due to adnexal mass between April 2003 and October 2005 at Vali-e-Asr Hospital, Tehran, Iran.