title: Evidence against diathermy as a beneficial treatment for human papillomavirus infection of the cervix.
abstract: An observational study of the influence of diathermy on the rate of subsequent cytological evidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and/or human papillomavirus infection among women with a histological diagnosis of cervical human papillomavirus infection is presented. After the histological diagnosis of human papillomavirus infection, 35% (23/65) of women who were not diathermied had persistence/recurrence of cytological abnormalities compared with 30% (60/203) of the women who were diathermied at the time of the biopsy. The rate ratio for further abnormality among women who did not have a diathermy relative to those who did was not significantly different at 1.25 (95% confidence interval 0.77-2.03). This study had a power of 77% to detect a true rate ratio of 2 at the 0.05 level of significance. This data does not provide strong evidence that diathermy is appropriate management for women with cervical human papillomavirus infection without evidence of dysplasia.
authors.affiliation: Victorian Cytology (Gynaecological) Service, Melbourne, Victoria.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Medley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004564:Electrocoagulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D027383:Papillomaviridae; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000601:surgery*; D002577:Uterine Cervical Diseases / Q000601:surgery*