A Study of Women Who Appear to Default from Management of an Abnormal Pap Smear

Abstract

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Most readers of the journal will have patients who have had minor abnormalities in a Pap smear and who have passed the statutory time for repetition of cervical cytology. Is the expense of a central register of abnormal pap smears worthwhile? ‐ do the reminder letters to practitioners result in diagnosis of significant pathology when the defaulters are rounded up? (i.e. what proportion have CIN III or worse). This paper caused the reviewer to ponder that it may be better to spend our dwindling resources on encouraging never‐smeared women over the age of 30 to attend for cytology, especially those over 50 years of age ‐ should general practitioners seek to enrol these women..