Pattern of Cervical Smear Cytology in Calabar, Nigeria,

Abstract

Background: Cancer of the cervix is the most common cancer of the female genital tract and accounts for about two hundred and fifty thousand deaths yearly. Most of these occur in the developing countries mainly Africa, because of poverty, lack of awareness, and absence of organised population based screening programmes which has greatly reduced the incidence in the developed world. Objective: The study is aimed at determining the pattern of cervical cytology of smears received in the Department of Pathology, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar. Method: A retrospective study of all cervical smears received and processed at the Department of Pathology, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar between January 2001 and December 2010.Those with inadequate data were excluded from the study. Classification was by the Bethesda system and analysis was by simple statistical methods. Results: During the study period, 98.3% of the 848 cervical smears received were satisfactory for analysis. Six hundred and ninety eight (83.7%) were negative smears while (16.3% )were abnormal, 2.6% of the abnormal samples were frankly malignant (invasive cancer), while 6.5% and 5.4% were high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HGSIL) and low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LGSIL) respectively. Conclusion: There is an urgent need for increase awareness for cervical cancer and population screening programmes should be encouraged to reduce the prevalence of cancer of the cervix in our population.