[Should we perform intra-operative endometrial biopsy during pelvic reconstructive surgery with uterine...

To evaluate the interest of systematic endometrial biopsy at the time of vaginal reconstructive surgery with uterine preservation.

We performed a retrospective monocentric study on all women who had vaginal reconstructive surgery with uterine preservation from 2005 to 2012. All following parameters have been studied: baseline characteristics (age, parity, BMI, hormonal status, medical history), prolapse stage using the POP-Q, preoperative pelvic ultrasound (endometrial thickness), and type of surgery. Women with previous hysterectomy were excluded.

Four hundred and fourteen patients were operated during this period, and 268 have uterine preservation (64.7%). Baseline characteristics were mean age 64.7±10.7 (39 to 92), mean parity 2.6±1.5, mean BMI 25.5±4.2, menopause 238 (88.8%), HRT 32 (12%), previous breast cancer 16 (6%), diabetes mellitus 31 (11.6%), and hypertension 87 (32.5%). Prolapse were at stage II in 127 (47.3%), stage III in 99 (36.9%) and stage IV in 17 (6.3%). Preoperative pelvic ultrasound has been done in 255 patients (95.2%), and mean endometrial thickness was 5.1mm (range 1.6-16). Overall, 152 intra-operative endometrial biopsies were assessable (56.7%). In 24 cases (15.8%), samples were too small to be interpretable. Finally, the 128 interpretable biopsies (82.2%) have shown one carcinoma (0.8%), four hyperplasia (3.2%), two endometrial polyps (1.6%), and 121 normal endometria (94.5%). The only cancer was discovered on a 77 year old patient, with a history of previous breast cancer, and with a preoperative endometrial thickness of 7 mm. No patient with normal preoperative ultrasound endometrial screening had abnormal endometrial biopsy.

Vaginal reconstructive surgery with uterine preservation implicates a preoperative endometrial evaluation by ultrasound. Intra-operative endometrial biopsy does not seem to be justified.