Outcome of Colposcopy in Federal Teaching Hospital, Katsina

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer develops from well-defined precursor lesions over time. Detected in early or pre-invasive stages, cervical cancer is preventable and curable. Colposcopy with directed biopsy is used in the evaluation of patients with cervical lesions, and is the ‘gold standard’ for the diagnosis of cervical pre-cancer.

Aim: To review colposcopy findings and assess the accuracy of colposcopic examination compared with the histological finding in our centre.

Materials and Methods: A review of 148 patients who were referred for colposcopy was conducted. Data were extracted from patients' folders and records in the colposcopy and histopathology register and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), IBM SPSS statistics Version 21.

Results: The patients' ages ranged 20-65 years with a mean age of 42 ± 1.7 years. Most patients (58.1%) were referred for colposcopy on account of abnormal Papanicolaou (Pap) smears. Abnormal colposcopic findings were reported in 121 patients, who subsequently had punch biopsy. The biopsy result showed that 21 (17.4%) had normal findings, 29 (24.0%) had cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) I, 33 (27.3%) had CIN II, 22 (18.2%) had CIN III and 16 (13.1%) had invasive cervical cancer. The accuracy of colposcopy in diagnosing premalignant and malignant cervical lesions was 68.6%. In 48 of the patients, the colposcopy and histology findings were exactly the same, giving a concordance rate of 39.7%.

Conclusion: Majority of patients referred for colposcopy were found to have a premalignant or malignant lesion of the cervix and our colposcopy is fairly accurate is detecting such lesions.