Frequency of smear positive precancerous cervical lesions in patients attending outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital

ABSTRACT

To find out the frequency of precancerous cervical lesions by doing Pap smear. It was a descriptive study conducted by Pakistan Medical and Research Council in outpatient department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar from 1st July 2007to 3oth June 2008. Four hundred and fifty patients all married, sexually active, between 20 and 60 years of age were included in the study. Those who were menstruating or with a suspicious looking cervix, a history of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia [CIN], Carcinoma of the Cervix, Ovary or Endometrium or pregnancy were excluded from the study. A detailed history and examination was done and a Proforma was filled. Pap smear was done in the outpatient department and was sent to cytologist for reporting. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 13. The Pap smear result showed inflammatory smear in 112 [24.88%] cases, 248 [55.11%] cases had a normal smear, 85 [18.88%] reported to be inadequate. Low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion was reported in 5 [1.11%] cases and none of these cases on colposcopic guided punch biopsy had CIN. The most frequent abnormality found in Pap smear study was infective bacillary background. The frequency of premalignant lesion was found to be very low in this largest study conducted in KPK. More studies are needed to confirm this finding in this ethnic population