Negative Pathology Report Following Salivary Gland Surgery for Suspected Primary Tumor– What Went Wrong? Volume 7 - Issue 2

Ohad Cohen¹*, Chanan Shaul¹, Victoria Doviner², Yoav Sherman² and Jean-Yves Sichel¹

• ¹Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Israel
• ²Department of Pathology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Hebrew University Medical School, Israel

Received:September 01, 2021;   Published:September 09, 2021

Corresponding author: Ohad Cohen, Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Shmu’el Bait St 12, Jerusalem, Israel

DOI: 10.32474/SJO.2021.07.000262

Fulltext PDF

To view the Full Article   Peer-reviewed Article PDF

Abstract

Objective: For patients undergoing an oncologic surgery, postoperative pathological diagnosis negative for a tumor is a confusing outcome. Additionally, it may carry clinical and medicolegal consequences. The study defines the causes of such discrepancies in order to prevent such instances in the future.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of patients who had undergone resection of a major salivary gland for a suspected or diagnosed primary tumor but had no tumor on surgical pathology.

Results: Eight patients (2.5%) had negative pathology. Causes for negative pathology were A) Surgical pathology error (n=3) B) Surgical management error (n=1) C) Surgery for definite diagnosis (n=2) D) Unexplained (n=2).

Conclusions: Negative pathology in salivary gland surgery is not rare. Negative pathology should raise the suspicions of both the surgeon and the pathologist. An immediate multidisciplinary review of all data will find the cause in most cases Keywords: Negative pathology; no tumor on pathology; salivary gland tumor; parotid gland tumor

Abstract| Introduction| Material and Methods| Results| Discussion| Conclusions| Disclosure of Interest| References|