A study on the usefulness of local anaesthesia for the laser vaporization of conizations in the uterine cervix

Abstract

The purpose of our study is to evaluate the need to use anaesthesia during laser ablation treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in populations of Asian women. Forty patients who were to undergo the ablation of CIN grade 1 or 2 were randomly divided into two groups. One group of patients was treated without any anaesthesia and the other group was treated using a paracervical block with lidocaine. The patients' experience of pain during the procedure was measured. These evaluations included an objective assessment made by the surgeons during the procedure using an objective pain scoring system, and a subjective estimation made by the patients themselves after the procedure using a visual analogue scale. Patients' feelings concerning the acceptability of either procedure were also elicited. Our results show that the case distribution of objective pain scores between the two groups of patients is not statistically different (p > 0.05). The mean visual analogue score of the patients who were not given anaesthesia (24.1%, SD 9.4) does not differ statistically from that of the patients who were administered a paracervical block (25.0%, SD 10.0, p > 0.05). Further, the acceptability rates of both groups are high (85% with paracervical block, 90% without anaesthesia), and the overall rates of the two groups are not statistically different (p > 0.05). These results imply that there may be differences in pain perception between Eastern and Western women. We conclude that in populations of Asian women, it is unnecessary to use anaesthesia during cervical laser ablation.