Vulvar biopsy: Punch biopsy or cervical forceps biopsy?

The primary objective of our study is to investigate the rate of non-contributory biopsies between punch biopsy(PB) and cervical forceps biopsy(CFB) for a vulvar lesion seen in consultation. The secondary objective of our study is to evaluate the rate of underestimation of a more severe lesion for patients who have undergone vulvar excision.

This is a retrospective, descriptive, and comparative study conducted at three centers. The study population consisted of patients who underwent vulvar biopsy between 2017 and 2022 in a gynecological surgery consultation at two French hospitals, as well as a city office. The biopsy techniques used were punch or cervical forceps biopsy. Quantitative variables were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test, while Pearson's or Fisher's Xi2 tests were used for qualitative variables. The significance level was set at 5%.

We conducted a retrospective study of 179 vulvar biopsies, of which 100 were punch biopsies and 79 were cervical forceps biopsies, from a total of 107 patients. There was no significant difference in the rate of non-contributory biopsies between the PB and CB groups (p = 1). When analyzing the secondary endpoint of our study, which included 68 patients who underwent vulvectomy after vulvar biopsy, we found that 66 patients (97%) had a good correlation between the pathology of the vulvar biopsy and that of the vulvectomy specimen.

Vulvar biopsy techniques using punch or cervical forceps appear to have similar diagnostic performance and are associated with comparable and low rates of underestimation of invasive lesions.