Cervical Cytologic Abnormalities of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia 1 Treated with Cryotherapy and Expectant Management during the First Year Follow-Up Period

Aim: To determine the frequency of cervical cytologic abnormalities in patients who were diagnosed ashaving CIN 1 and had undergone either cryotherapy or expectant management.
Methods: A retrospective medicalrecord review of 87 patients with colposcopic cervical biopsy-proven CIN 1, was undertaken including age,parity, menstruation status, cervical cytology reports, colposcopic findings, and cervical cytologic follow-upreports. There were 38 patients (43.7%) treated with cryotherapy and the remainder underwent expectantmanagement.
Results: Mean (SD) age of patients treated with cryotherapy was less than that of the patients whohad expectant management (36.2 (9.4) vs 41.1 (9.4) years, respectively, p=0.02). There were no differences in thefrequencies of cervical cytologic abnormalities between the groups at 6- and 12-month-follow-up visits(cryotherapy group vs expectant group: 18.4% vs 18.4% at 6-months and 19.2% vs 16.1% at 12-months).
Conclusion: Cryotherapy and expectant management with cytologic surveillance had comparable frequenciesof cytologic abnormalities during a 12-month follow-up period. Expectant management requires adherence tofollow up and high quality cytology and colposcopy testing. Therefore, it should be reserved for these settings.Cryotherapy may be more reasonable in women who are likely to be lost to follow up and high quality cytologycannot be guaranteed.