Colposcopic evaluation of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

Colposcopic examination and directed biopsies were performed on 70 patients with abnormal cerivcal cytology. The correlation of the histology of the directed biopsies with the colposcopic appearance was 80%; it was 86% with the original Papanicolaou smear. In no case was the histology of a subsequent cone biopsy or hysterectomy specimen more advanced than that of the directed biopsy. Conization was avoided in 52 of the 70 patients and could have been avoided in seven others.