Evaluation of importance of cystoscopy in staging carcinoma of the uterine cervix.

Four hundred cases with carcinoma of the uterine cervix were evaluated by cystoscopy regarding involvement of urinary bladder. In stages I and II there was not a single case of bladder involvement; in stage III, 3 out of 39 cases and in stage IV, 2 out of 10 patients were found to have bladder involvement. Thus cystoscopy resulted in elevating the clinical stage in 3 of these patients but was unchanged in 2 cases. These findings indicate that cystoscopy is mandatory only for clinical stages III and IV.