Visual inspection of cervix after application of acetic acid and lugol’s iodine in cervical cancer screening

Background: Worldwide, cervical cancer comprises 12% of all cancers in women and 2,31,000 women die of cervical cancer every year, over 80% of whom live in developing countries. Across India cervical cancer is the commonest preventable cancer reported from all cancer registries except those in Mumbai and Delhi where breast cancer is the commonest. Aims and Objectives: 1. To do cervical cancer screening by VIA and VILI. 2. To determine the sensitivity and specificity of VIA, VILI. 3. To assess the reliability of VIA and VILI as a cancer screening tool in the detection of precancerous lesions of cervix by comparing its sensitivity and specificity with pap smear keeping colposcopy and colposcopy directed biopsy as reference standard. 4. To study the efficacy of combined screening programs. Material and method: 500 patients were selected from the C.U. SHAH MEDICAL COLLEGE, SURENDRANAGAR Gynaecology OPD over a period of November 2016 to May 2018. Results: Sensitivity of VIA is73.56% VILI is70.11% Pap Smear is79.31%. Specificity of VIA is 83.05% VILI is 84.02% Pap Smear is97.82%. Conclusion: Visual inspection of the cervix after application of acetic acid and Lugol’s Iodine can be used as one of the low cost screening tool in the detection of pre invasive lesions of cervix. The higher sensitivity, accuracy, low cost, easy applicability and immediate results make VIA, VILI a useful screening test in developing countries like India.