Abstract
A new disposable mechanical curette, the Inocurette', was used to obtain endometrial samples for histopathology and cytology. The instrument was tested on 120 patients; 37 patients were known from a previous conventional curettage (D & CI to have an endometrial cancer and 83 patients were referred to the County Hospital of Trelleborg for curettage because of dysfunctional bleedings. In all 120 patients a D & C followed the microcurettage procedure. The samples were randomized, coded and analyzed blind without any clinical information. In all but 3 patients with a known endometrial cancer, sufficient microcurettage sample material for either histopathology or cytology was obtained. In all but one of these 34 patients either a malignant diagnosis or seriously atypical cells were found. Using only cytology five out of 34 samples were designated adequate but normal. In a further 5 of the 37 patients the samples obtained at the subsequent D & C were inadequate for diagnosis; one sample was denoted as normal. In the 83 patients with dysfunctional bleedings, sufficient material for diagnosis after microcurettage, cytology and D & C was obtained in 74, 83 and 79 patients respectively. One endometrial cancer was disclosed by all three methods. Lnocurette® sampling causes little discomfort and requires no special training. The combined microcurettage—cytology procedure may be recommended as an alternative to conventional curettage, though, for the time being, D & C should not be replaced for cytology alone.