The use of cervicography in the follow-up of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia treated by CO2 laser.

After treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) the follow-up of patients would be simplified if colposcopy could be safely omitted. A study of 50 patients was performed to determine the feasibility of such an approach. Cervical cytology, cervicography and colposcopy, with or without biopsy, was performed in each patient. From the results the following criteria for colposcopy were adopted: (a) patients thought to have CIN on cytology or cervicography, (b) inadequate cervicography picture (vagina covering cervix or poor quality photography), (c) high-risk factors present (immunosuppression, after cone biopsy, postmenopausal). In this study the number of colposcopies would have been reduced from 50 to 11 if these criteria were adopted. Cervical cytology combined with cervicography is a reasonable alternative to colposcopy and we feel this is a technique worth pursuing for the follow-up of patients treated for CIN.