Treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia by colposcopically directed cryosurgery and subsequent pregnancy experience

Of 420 patients attending a colposcopy clinic 204 were treated with outpatient cryosurgery for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. It was possible to assess a definite outcome of therapy in 159 patients, and the lesion was successfully eradicated in 87% of them. Treatment failure appeared to be more common in patients of high parity, when the lesion extended into the cervical canal, and in those patients with large lesions. Failure appeared to be unrelated to patient age and to the histological grade of the lesion. In subsequent pregnancies utero-cervical function was preserved.