Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Is thyroid frozen section too much for too little?

Melanie L Richards1, Robert Chisholm, Jan M Bruder

  • 1Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr, San Antonio 78229-3900, USA. richardsm@uthscsa.edu

American Journal of Surgery
|December 19, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Frozen section (FS) analysis during thyroid surgery offers minimal benefit. Routine FS does not significantly alter patient outcomes despite increased costs and operative time, suggesting it may not be necessary for all thyroid disease patients.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Developmental regulation of Erk signaling by mitotic kinases.

Science advances·2026
Same author

Suboptimal codon pairs trigger ribosome collisions and cellular quality control responses in tRNA modification mutants.

Nucleic acids research·2025
Same author

In vivo intratumoral heterogeneity in a dish: scalable forebrain organoid models of embryonal brain tumors for high-throughput personalized drug discovery.

Cancer communications (London, England)·2025
Same author

ETMR stem-like state and chemo-resistance are supported by perivascular cells at single-cell resolution.

Nature communications·2025
Same author

Multicellular model of neuroblastoma proposes unconventional therapy based on multiple roles of p53.

PLoS computational biology·2024
Same author

Three-Dimensional Cell Culture Systems in Pediatric and Adult Brain Tumor Precision Medicine.

Cancers·2022

Area of Science:

  • Endocrinology
  • Surgical Pathology
  • Oncology

Background:

  • The utility of frozen section (FS) in managing thyroid disease remains debated.
  • Identifying patient subgroups that benefit from FS is crucial for optimizing surgical decisions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the impact of frozen section (FS) on surgical management and patient outcomes in thyroidectomy.
  • To determine if the benefits of FS justify its associated costs and resource utilization.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective analysis of 231 patients undergoing thyroidectomy.
  • Comparison of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and FS diagnostic accuracy.
  • Assessment of FS impact on surgical decision-making and extent of thyroidectomy.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • FS demonstrated high specificity (100%) but similar sensitivity (50%) to FNA for malignancy diagnosis.
  • FS results changed the extent of thyroidectomy in only 1 out of 103 patients.
  • Malignancy was diagnosed in 47 out of 231 patients.

Conclusions:

  • Routine frozen section (FS) in thyroid surgery does not offer substantial improvements in patient outcomes.
  • The added costs and operative time associated with FS are not consistently justified by clinical benefits.
  • Consideration should be given to selective use of FS based on specific clinical scenarios.