Early and late pregnancy outcomes in women treated with cold-coagulation versus LLETZ cervical treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia; a retrospective cohort study

Dimitrios Papoutsis, Martyn Underwood, William Parry-Smith, Jane Panikkar

To compare the pregnancy outcomes between women who were treated with cold-coagulation versus large loop excision of the transformation zone (LLETZ) for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. This was a retrospective cohort study of women who had a single cervical treatment between 2010 and 2011. We identified those women who had a singleton pregnancy subsequent to their cervical treatment until September 2017. Women with previous cervical treatment, previous miscarriage or preterm delivery were excluded. We identified 86 women with a pregnancy after LLETZ treatment and 75 women after cold coagulation. Those who had LLETZ when compared to cold coagulation miscarried more often in the first trimester (33.7 vs 17.3%; p = 0.01) than in the second trimester. In women with LLETZ this effect of increased early miscarriage was shown to be prolonged and to persist up to 17 months after excision. Women with LLETZ when compared to cold coagulation had higher spontaneous preterm birth rates (8.9 vs 6.7%) even though the difference was non significant, with the earliest spontaneous preterm birth occurring at 32 weeks and 34 weeks, respectively. We found that women who received LLETZ treatment when compared to cold coagulation had higher spontaneous preterm birth rates in their subsequent pregnancy and miscarried more frequently in the first trimester, and demonstrated an increased early miscarriage risk that persisted for more than a year after excisional treatment.