Reassessment of the Usefulness of Frozen Section Analysis for Hip and Knee Joint Revisions Medscape

Description: Intraoperative frozen section (FS) consultation is used in evaluating possible infection in cases of hip and knee revision arthroplasty, serving as an adjunct to preoperative and intraoperative studies. We examined our experience for more than 11 years to determine if FS examination had value when sections were sent unselectively. As currently used, FS analysis has excellent specificity and negative predictive value but poor sensitivity and positive predictive value. We suggest that FS examination be used more selectively in conjunction with other studies, namely erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein.
William A. Kanner, MD; Khaled J. Saleh, MD, MSc, FRSC(C); Henry F. Frierson, Jr, MD Am J Clin Pathol. 2008;130(3):363-368.