Management of a patient with an abnormal cervical smear - 2002 update

Practice guidelines - Posted on May 01 2002 - Updated on Jul 19 2006

The aims of this update report are:

to present the 2001 update of the Bethesda system,
to compare the performance of the cervical smear in liquid-based medium to that of the conventional Papanicolaou smear,
to assess the HPV test in terms of its reliability and its place in a management strategy after a cytological abnormality has been detected.

This report does not address ways and means of routine cervical smear screening for cervical cancer, nor the use of the HPV test as a screening tool for cervical cancer.