The Importance of Frozen Section-Controlled Excision in Recurrent Basal Cell Carcinoma of the Eyelids

OBJECTIVES To show the importance of frozen section-controlled excision to avoid the re-recurrence of recurrent basal cell carcinoma (BCC) of the eyelids. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty-five cases who underwent eyelid tumor excision in different centers and were admitted to our clinic with recurrent eyelid tumors. Recurrent tumors were resected by excision 1-2 mm from the tumor's visible margin and sent to pathology for frozen section examination. Eyelid reconstructions with flap and graft were performed after confirming that the surgical margins were negative. RESULTS Twenty-one (60%) of our patients were male and 14 (40%) were female. Median age of our group was 63.4±14.2 years. Excision and sending the excised material for frozen section control was performed once for 11 patients, twice for 12 patients, 3 times for 8 patients and 4 times for 4 patients to confirm that the surgical margins were clean. All pathology samples were reported as BCC. All patients had eyelid reconstruction with flap and graft. Recurrence was detected in 2 patients (5.7%) during 1 to 8 years (mean 4.3 years) of follow-up and those patients were reoperated; no recurrence was detected in the remaining 33 patients (94.3%). CONCLUSION Frozen section control can provide low re-recurrence rate in patients with recurrent BCC of the eyelids.