Pap smear: A preventive approach to screening, diagnosis and management of cervical abnormalities at a tertiary care hospital

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women accounting for 17.7% among all cancers in women. A major contributing factor to the high incidence of the disease in developing countries is due to the lack of efficient screening programmes. The Papanicolaou smear has been well utilized for initial screening of cervical epithelial alterations in order to identify pre-cancerous lesions.
Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted among women who visited gynecological out patient department over 6 months for clinical problem. Pap smear of 600 gynaecology patients of age group 21-60 years were collected. The patients with abnormal epithelial lesions were subjected to cervical punch biopsy. The variables were expressed as frequency and percentages.
Results: It was noted that out of the 600 women who had Pap smear screenings, 124 of them had abnormal results. The study participants were divided into two age groups: 43.67% and 30%, respectively, with the 31–40 year old age group coming in first. The majority of them (87.17%) experienced vaginal discharge, and 62.67% reported experiencing abdominal pain. Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance (ASCUS) accounted for 38.70% of the epithelial cell abnormalities, followed by Bacterial vaginosis (24.19%) and Trichomonas vaginosis (12.91%).
Conclusion: Thus, we draw the conclusion that every woman in the reproductive age group should have a Pap smear test performed because it is an extremely helpful, easy, affordable, and safe method of identifying pre-cancerous cervical epithelial abnormalities.