Cryotherapy and carbon dioxide laser management of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia: a controlled comparison.

Two hundred patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia were treated alternately by cryotherapy and carbon dioxide laser therapy on an outpatient basis after appropriate triage with colposcopy, cervical biopsy, and endocervical curettage. Results of treatment were not significantly different from one another, with failure occurring in 7% of patients treated with cryotherapy and 11% of those treated with carbon dioxide laser therapy. The cryotherapeutically treated patients had less pain but more discharge than those treated by the carbon dioxide laser. The laser patients' cervices healed more rapidly than did the cervices treated with cryotherapy. There appears to be no advantage in replacing cryotherapy with carbon dioxide laser therapy.