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Intraoperative surgical clearance confirmation of tongue carcinomas using ultrasound

¹ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kyushu Dental College, Kitakyushu, Japan; ² Department of Oral Diagnostic Science, Kyushu Dental College, Kitakyushu, Japan

*Correspondence to: Kazuhiro Tominaga, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kyushu Dental College, 2-6-1, Manazuru, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu 803-8580, Japan; Email: tominaga{at}kyu-dent.ac.jp

Received 20 July 2006; revised 14 October 2006; accepted 3 November 2006

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.

Keywords: ultrasound; tongue carcinoma; surgical clearance; intraoperative diagnosis