Influence of the size of cone specimens on postoperative hemorrhage

To investigate whether the amount of the tissue removed at conization could influence the frequency of postoperative hemorrhage, the size of 221 cone specimens was measured in two different series. The 119 patients in the first series were operated upon mainly during 1972 and the second series of 102 patients mainly during 1973. The cones in Series II were empirically reduced following the technique proposed by Crisp and associates. Actual measurements demonstrated that the specimens in Series II were smaller than in Series I. The frequency of bleeding following conization was 4 per cent in the second series but as high as 21 per cent in the first series. Postconization hemorrhages, however, were unrelated to the size of the individual cone specimens in the different series. The operative technique used in Series II appears to be responsible for the decrease in the amount of postconization hemorrhages.