Profile of utero-cervical lesions in peri- & post-menopausal women in Kumaon Region of Uttarakhand: An Institutional study

INTRODUCTION PAP smear is an important tool which compliment histopathology in detection of various cervical lesions. Since last few decades, it is becoming easy and cost-effective way for early detection of pre-cancerous and cancerous cervical lesions. AIMS/OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to evaluate the utero-cervical lesions in peri& post-menopausal age group by Pap smear method; to study the distribution of cervical lesions and to correlate cytology with histopathology wherever available. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted at pathology department of GMC, HALDWANI. It comprised of 324 cases of PAP smear of women with complaints pertaining to cervix over a period of two years. . PAP smear results were reported according to 'The Bethesda system' (TBS), followed by cervical biopsy and surgically resected specimens, wherever available. RESULTS: Total 324 cases were evaluated on pap smear cytology. The most of the cases comprised of peri and post menopausal age group (141women,43.52%) while only 16 women (4.96%) are over 65 years. Most common symptom was lower abdominal pain (100 cases; 30.87%). The cervical lesions were categorized as: 14 (4.32%) cases unsatisfactory, 231 (71.30%) cases benign /inflammatory, 60 (18.52%) cases normal, 15 (4.63%) cases of pre-malignant and 4 (1.23%) cases of malignant category. On histopathological examination, maximum 59 (68.61%) cases were inflammatory, 7 (8.14%) cases were pre-malignant and 20 (23.25%) cases were malignant. CONCLUSION: Our study concluded that the pap smear examination is a useful technique to find the cause of cervical lesions. It is easy to perform, minimally invasive, outdoor procedure that gives quick results and should be followed at all the centers.