Role of endocervical curettage in colposcopy.

Two-thousand three-hundred and four patients with abnormal cervical cytology were evaluated by colposcopy, cervical biopsy, and endocervical curettage. The endocervical curettage was more accurate than the cervical biopsy in 1.2% of patients with satisfactory colposcopic examinations, 15.7% of patients with unsatisfactory examinations, and 30.5% of patients with no lesions observed. The endocervical curettage contained neoplastic epithelium in all 15 of the patients with invasive cancer and in seven patients it was the only diagnostic parameter that indicated invasion. The information from the endocervical curettage, when correlated with the cervical cytology, colposcopic findings, and cervical biopsy, eliminated the need to do a diagnostic conization in 76% of patients with unsatisfactory examinations and 79% of patients with no lesion identified. It is recommended that the endocervical curettage be a part of every colposcopic examination.