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Impact of prolonged referral interval on colposcopic outcomes in women with moderate or severe dysplasia
Author(s) -
Fakokunde Biodun,
SeloOjeme Dan
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1016/j.ijgo.2007.11.014
Subject(s) - medicine , colposcopy , referral , confidence interval , odds ratio , dysplasia , obstetrics , gynecology , cervical cancer , cancer , family medicine
Objective To ascertain the impact of long referral to first colposcopy interval on disease outcome in women with high‐grade cervical smear tests. Methods Data from 316 women categorized into Group 1 (seen 180 days after referral) and Group 2 (seen within 180 days of referral) were analyzed using χ 2 test with Yates correction. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results Women in Group 1 were less likely to need treatment (33.8% [25/74] vs 55.8% [135/242]; OR = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.25–0.78; P = 0.0004) and less likely to have high‐grade disease (24.3% [18/74] vs 45.9% [111/242]); OR = 0.37; 95% CI, 0.21–0.68; P = 0.001) than women in Group 2. There was no significant difference between the groups in proportion of women with invasive disease. Conclusion In women with high‐grade smears the need for excisional treatment and the risk of invasive disease may be reduced by prolonged referral interval.