Experience with colposcopy at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, North-Western Nigeria

Background: The first 2 years' experience of a colposcopy clinic at our teaching hospital was analyzed. Establishment of the clinic was supervised by consultants trained in colposcopy. Objective: To review the performance of the clinic from its inception in 2010. Materials and Methods: A study of 90 patients who were referred for colposcopy was conducted. Data were extracted from patients' folders and records in the colposcopy and histopathology register and analyzed using EPI INFO (TM) 7. Results: Fifty-one women were referred on account of abnormal Papanicolaou (Pap) smears indicating either low grade squamous lesion (44%) or high grade lesion (12.2%). Thirteen patients (14.4%) had persistent inflammatory smears while 26 patients (28.9%) where referred on account of suspicious cervix. Abnormal colposcopic findings were reported in 48 patients who subsequently had colposcopically directed punch biopsy. The result of the biopsy showed that 18 patients had cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) I. Only two of these had high grade lesion; the remaining had low grade lesion (81% concordance). Nineteen women had either CIN II or CIN III. Only two cases were reported as low grade lesions and one case as suspected invasive cervical cancer on colposcopy. The remaining had high grade lesion (85% concordance %). Overall, the colposcopic impression was in agreement with the histological diagnosis in 87% of the cases. Conclusion: Our initial experience with colposcopy shows good correlation/agreement between colposcopic impression and histological diagnosis. This has improved the detection rate of premalignant and malignant disease of the cervix in our center.