Study of cervical biopsy over a decade at a tertiary level hospital, Nepal

Abstract

Cervical carcinoma is the most common gynecological malignancy and almost curable cancer, if identifiedat an early stage. Cervical biopsy remains the ‘gold standard’ for the diagnosis of precancerous cervicallesion. The objective of this study was to review the histopathological findings of cervical biopsy includingcervical polypectomy and hysterectomy specimens at Dhulikhel Hospital from January 2008 to December2018. Out of 2098 cases, almost half of the cases (49.3%) were of Brahmin/Chhetri castes. There weresignificant differences in mean ages among hysterectomy cases (47.55±9.26), cervical biopsy cases(43.08±11.50) and polypectomy cases (33.59±12.47) (p value < 0.005). Out of 925 cervical specimens (cervicalbiopsy and polypectomy), colposcopy and hysteroscopy were performed in 18.2% and 12.7%, respectively.Out of 1173 hysterectomies, there were 110 cases (9.4%) of malignancies and cervical cancer was the most
common (67, 60.9%). The mean age of cervical cancer patients was 52.87±11.94 years. Cervical cancerdetected in age group of 40 – 59 years was significantly high (p value < 0.005). Incidence of cervical cancerwas lowest in Brahmin/Chhetris (2.4%) compared to Newars (3.4%) and other Janajatis (12.8%) and thedifference was statistically significant (p value < 0.005). The findings of thisstudy is useful in updating thehistopathological pattern of cervical biopsies.

Keywords : Biopsy, cervical cancer,colposcopy, hysterectomy,polypectomy