Correlation of Intraoperative Ultrasonographic Oral Tongue Shape and Border and Risk of Close Margins

Intraoperative ultrasound (IOUS) is a potentially useful adjunct to the resection of oral tongue cancers (OTC). IOUS images of the tumor-normal tissue interface show different patterns of invasion. In this retrospective series of 29 patients treated for OTC, we evaluated if there was a correlation between IOUS findings of patterns of invasion and final histology and assessed if there was any associated risk of increased incidence of positive or close margins with different patterns of invasion as seen on ultrasound. Although we found no significant correlation between ultrasound patterns of invasion and histological evaluation, we did find that an infiltrative pattern of invasion on IOUS did result in a significant risk of a close margin. Further exploration of these findings in a larger prospective study could provide definitive information on the efficacy of this modality in OTC resections.