Efficacy of pipelle as a tool for Endometrial biopsy

This study was carried out to determine the accuracy of Pipelle sampling in the diagnosis of abnormal uterine bleeding by comparing it with histopathology of the hysterectomy specimens taken as gold standard. One hundred patients with abnormal uterine bleeding in perimenopausal or postmenopausal age group scheduled for hysterectomy had endometrial sampling with Pipelle, in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unit I, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, from Dec. 2003 to Dec. 2004. The specimens were sent for histopathology. Among 100 patients, 66 underwent hysterectomy. In the remaining 34 patients, 6 had inadequate specimen on Pipelle sampling and in 28 patients hysterectomy was planned but postponed because of medical problems. Among the 66 patients the results of Pipelle Endometrial Sampling (PES) were compared with histological results of hysterectomy specimen. Among the 66 patients the results of PES were compared with the histological results of hysterectomy specimen. In 61 cases the histopathological results were identical indicating a correlation of 92.42%. In 5 cases results were different, 4 having slight variation and in one case PES reported complex hyperplasia and on hysterectomy it turned out to be a case of carcinoma cervix. It is concluded that Pipelle biopsy is definitely a useful and cost effective method. It can reduce the number of D C performed in the theatre. Moreover it has an advantage of taking biopsy on the first visit of patient thereby time taken for the diagnosis of malignancy can be reduced