Outpatient management of abnormal smears

To review the results of the first 403 women treated at the Abnormal Smear and Colposcopy Unit with special reference to the utility, efficacy, acceptability and economy of in-office treatment of cervical lesions by large loop or Fischer cone excision.

Retrospective chart review of consecutive patients treated following, referral with an abnormal smear or abnormal cervical morphology, between 1 September 1996 and 1 August 2001.

Inner city private practice.

A total of 403 consecutive General Practitioner referred women.

Details of referral smear result, colposcopically directed biopsy result, subsequent treatment type and histological result including assessability, number of specimens submitted, complications and follow-up assessment were extracted at chart review. Costs of public hospital inpatient and outpatient care, supplied by the Casemix and Clinical Benchmarking Service, Mater Miseraecordae Public Hospitals (with permission to publish), were compared with Medicare rebates.

A total of 187 women were treated by large loop excision of the transformation zone, and 216 by Fischer cone excision. The number of women who were treated as outpatients under local anaesthetic were 395, while eight patients were treated under general anaesthesia as inpatients. There was poor correlation between referring smear, biopsy and subsequent treatment results. Eight patients had abnormal cytology at follow-up, of whom two have been retreated. Three patients had primary or secondary bleeding requiring treatment and two developed cervical stenosis. Outpatient private practice treatment of women with abnormal smears allows significant savings to the public purse over public or private hospital care.

Outpatient treatment of women with abnormal smears, using the Fischer cone technique, is safe, well accepted, effective and the most cost efficient solution to this public health problem.