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Updated: Jul 11, 2026
Intraoperative Assessment of Resection Margins in Oral Cavity Cancer: This is the Way
Published on: May 10, 2021
Intraoperative surgical clearance confirmation of tongue carcinomas using ultrasound
K Tominaga1, K Yamamoto, A Khanal
1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kyushu Dental College, 2-6-1, Manazuru, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu 803-8580, Japan. tominaga@kyu-dent.ac.jp
Objectives:
The existence of tumour cells on the surgical margin can be shown in frozen sections. However, there has been no method to obtain information about surgical clearance intraoperatively. We propose a simple method to confirm the surgical clearance of tongue carcinomas during surgery.
Methods:
Just after the resection of a tumour in a conventional manner, the resected fresh specimen was immersed in a gelatine solution, maintaining its original shape and orientation, and refrigerated for solidification of the gelatine. Then ultrasound observation of the gelatine-embedded specimen was performed from the surface of the gelatine.
Results:
Very fine images could be obtained easily and without any specialist skills.
Conclusions:
With this method, the operator can easily obtain information about surgical clearance during the operation.
