Estimation of the optimal thickness of sections for adipose tissue, salivary glands and skeletal muscle during intraoperative frozen sections.

AIM: To estimate and evaluate the optimal thickness section tissue for adipose tissue, salivary glands and skeletal muscle during intraoperative frozen sectioning.

METHODOLOGY: This prospective study was conducted in our oral oncology department after obtaining approval from the institutional ethics committee. For each tissue type, 143 sections were analysed at each of three thicknesses (5, 7, and 11 µm) using a two-step embedding technique, resulting in a total of 1287 sections. The sections were semi-qualitatively scored as acceptable or unacceptable based on the presence of artefacts, staining characteristics, cellular morphology, and cellular and nuclear outline. The data were analysed using SPSS software, version 26.

RESULTS

The adipose tissue, salivary glands and skeletal muscle were analysed at three different thicknesses, 5 µm (Group I), 7 µm (Group II) and 11 µm (Group III). A statistically significant difference was found between the three groups (p <0.001). Adipose tissue sections of 11 µm showed the highest percentage of acceptable sections (80.42%), with minimal artefacts compared with Groups I and II. However, salivary gland tissue showed higher percentages of satisfactory sections at 5 µm (84.61%) and 7 µm (81.81%). Similar results were obtained for skeletal muscle.

CONCLUSION

Among the section thicknesses evaluated, adipose tissue showed the highest percentage of acceptable sections at 11 µm, whereas salivary gland tissue and skeletal muscle showed better section quality at 5-7 µm. Further studies in oncology centres are needed to validate these findings.