The Kevorkian curette. An appraisal of its effectiveness in endometrial evaluation.

Abstract

Office endometrial biopsy with the Kevorkian curette was performed in 400 patients presenting with abnormal uterine bleeding or other endometrial cancer-risk indicators. The use of this instrument has proved to be a safe, simple, inexpensive, and highly reliable outpatient procedure with excellent patient acceptance. It has provided tissue for adequate diagnosis in 91.8% of the cases, and the diagnostic accuracy when controlled by D&C and/or total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) was 96.2%. As a result, 73.5% of the women required no further surgical procedures for either diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. In the postmenopausal age group, adenocarcinoma was diagnosed in 7 of 177 (3.9%) women. This procedure is highly recommended for early office diagnosis of uterine pathology and, in particular, endometrial adenocarcinoma and its presumed precursor lesion, adenomatous hyperplasia.