Cervical polyp: evaluating the need of routine surgical intervention and its correlation with cervical smear cytology and endometrial pathology: a retrospective study

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of premalignant and malignant lesions in cervical polyps in order to examine whether cervical polyps need to be removed routinely and also to appraise its association with cervical smear cytology and endometrial pathologies. METHODS: We retrospectively re-examined the hospital records of 299 cases over a period of 5 years. All patients were segregated into perimenopausal and postmenopausal groups according to their menopausal status. The groups were compared in terms of histological results of cervical polyp biopsy, endometrial pathologies, and cervical smear cytology. Pearson’s χ(2) test and Fisher’s exact test were used for statistical analysis, and a P-value of <0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. RESULTS: In the histopathological reports of cervical polyps, premalignant lesions were found in 2% of cases, and only 0.3% of malignant lesion was observed in menopausal women. Subsequently, no malignancy was noted in cervical smear cytology for both groups. Premalignant and malignant lesions in endometrial histopathology findings were 1.33% and 0.66%, respectively. There was a statistically significant association between the menopausal status of the patient and cervical smear cytology and endometrial pathology, but the histological findings were not statistically significant in relation to the symptomatic status of the patients. CONCLUSION: As per the results, we strongly suggest the removal of all cervical polyps with subsequent histological review. The evaluation of cervical smear cytology prior to polypectomy can provide information about its malignancy potential. We believe that along with cervical polypectomy, endometrial sampling should be recommended, especially for postmenopausal women.