Postoperative Human Papilloma Virus Positivity Rate Due to Differences in Surgical Procedures in Patients with Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia

Objective: Cervical cancer is caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) is a precancerous lesion. Common treatments for CIN are conization and laser vaporization. HPV testing is useful for predicting residual or recurrent disease after surgical treatment. We performed high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) genotyping postoperatively to examine the HPV positivity rate and determine whether this rate differed depending on the surgical procedure.

Methods: This study involved 42 patients with moderate to severe CIN (CIN2/3) who showed HR-HPV positivity before surgical treatment from May 2018 to July 2019. Of the 42 patients, 24 underwent conization and 18 underwent laser vaporization. HR-HPV genotyping was performed 6 months later, and cytology was carried out every 3 to 6 months postoperatively.

Results: Thirty-nine of the 42 patients (conization, n = 22; laser vaporization, n = 17) underwent HR-HPV genotyping 6 months after the surgery and were analyzed. Eight (20.5%) of these 39 patients were HR-HPV positive. There were no cases of HR-HPV negativity with abnormal cytology. Although there was no significant difference, analysis of the postoperative rate of HR-HPV positivity by surgical procedure (conization, n = 2; laser vaporization, n = 6) showed a higher positivity rate in the laser vaporization group (p = 0.059).

Conclusion: The postoperative HR-HPV positivity rate was about 20%. Patients who underwent laser vaporization had a higher HR-HPV positivity rate than those who underwent conization.

Keywords:HR-HPV; CIN; Conization; Laser vaporization