The management of pre-invasive cervical lesions using cryotherapy in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Cervical cancer is the commonest gynaecological malignancy in developing countries. The pre-invasive lesion often starts more than a decade before it becomes overt cancer. In this study most patients were in their third or fourth decade of life and had been pregnant at least once. Cryotherapy has been shown in this study to be an effective method of treating pre-invasive lesions. The cure rate after 1 year follow-up following single treatment was 93.1%. Follow-up visits are important and can improve the results to near perfection if patients are properly selected for such conservative management. The complication rate of cryotherapy is low and mainly involves excessive mucoid discharge which lasts for a few weeks. It is our opinion that the technique be popularised in developing countries, as a cost-effective method for the management of pre-invasive lesions.