DOES THE LOOP ELECTROSURGICAL EXCISION PROCEDURE ADVERSELY AFFECT THE HISTOPATHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF CERVICAL CONIZATION SPECIMENS

Objective, To assess the suitability of conized specimens obtained by loop ele Methods. We evaluated the histological pictures of 215 tissue sections obtained by loop electrosurgical excision procedure. These sections came from 32 cases of patients with various degrees of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. All women included in our study had a satisfactory colposcopy and no cytological or colposcopic evidence of invasive cancer. We quantified the thickness of thermal damage in the tissue sections using a stage-mounted, calibrated grid microscope. Results, At its greatest extent, thermal damage occurring next to incision lines ranged from 160 to 520 mu (mean 262, SE 14 mu). Two different zones of thermal damage were produced by LEEP: the carbonization and coagulation zones. The carbonization zone was located at the outermost layer and was very thin, measuring from 10 to 30 mu in depth. The coagulation zone was adjacent to the carbonization zone, was eosinophilic, and was significantly deeper than the carbonization zone at its points of greatest thickness (150 to 500 mu; p<0.0001, Student's t-test). The depth of the coagulation zone correlated significantly with the depth of the carbonization zone (p=0.041, least linear correlation). Tissue distortion was present in 53% (17/32) of the cases, and appeared only in the coagulation zone. Conclusion. Tissue structure from the diseased portions of thee conized specimens was generally well preserved. The area of thermal damage was limited and thus did not result in diagnostic problems. We conclude that LEEP is a reliable method for obtaining tissue samples for histopathological examination.