What is the difference between LEEP and cold knife conization?

  Nowadays, cervical screening is widespread and some women have abnormal cervical screening, colposcopy + cervical biopsy, which reveals CIN lesions, and if they are CIN II-III, the doctor will recommend conization. When it comes to the specific surgery, many women are confused whether they should choose LEEP or cold knife conization, what is the difference between the two?  LEEP (Loop Loop Excision of the Cervix) is a relatively simple procedure that emerged in the 1990s and can be performed in an outpatient setting. There are different tips (conical tip, circular tip, spherical tip, knife-shaped tip, with different roles) and the extent of the procedure depends on the extent of the cervical lesion. In clinical practice, patients with CIN II are mostly recommended to undergo LEEP surgery.  However, the use of an electrodesiccation ring may cause carbonization of the edges of the excised cervical specimen (depending on the speed of excision, if the LEEP knife is too slow, there is an increased risk of excessive carbonization of the cone), which has an impact on the pathological diagnosis of the specimen’s edges (“whether there is residual lesion at the edges” is relevant to the next step of the patient’s management). The extent of resection during LEEP conization is limited (depth of cervical canal 1-1.5 cm, depth of cervical tissue 0.5-0.7 cm).  Secondly, CKC (cold knife conical excision of the cervix) cold knife conical excision has slightly more bleeding (about 50ml) compared to LEEP, requires admission to the hospital for anesthesia, and takes about 30 minutes to perform conical excision of cervical lesions using a scalpel. Because it is a sharp cold knife resection, the specimen margin is clearer during pathological examination and the scope of surgical resection is larger than LEEP, the “width” and “height” of the cone can be decided according to experience and the extent of the lesion, and the depth of the cone can reach 2-3 cm. It has been shown that if patients with CIN III undergo LEEP, there is a possibility that about 20% of the lesions remain uncut, so patients with CIN III can choose CKC. III. Summary As a diagnostic conization technique, the indications for LEEP are basically the same as those for CKC. However, in practical application, because LEEP has less bleeding and can be treated on an outpatient basis, patients with mild lesions (CIN II) are recommended to undergo LEEP surgery for less trauma, less bleeding and faster recovery. For patients with CIN III or highly suspicious of the presence of microfocal invasive cancer, the experience of Union Hospital is to use CKC to avoid the small scope of LEEP surgery, which affects the examination of pathological specimens, or the embarrassment of “doing CKC again after LEEP surgery”. However, the effect of LEEP surgery on pregnancy is less than that of CKC, and some studies have shown that the pregnancy rate after LEEP surgery is not different from that of the general population.