POI Microbiopsy Instrument

The POI Microbiopsy instrument was originally designed for taking bronchoscopic biopsies. We have show in our prior work that the key to obtaining an accurate diagnosis is taking more biopsies.   Standard cervical biopsy tools have larger jaws as shown in the photo below. The POI instrument takes 2mm biopsies, causing minimal trauma to tissue.

Key advantages to using the POI instrument are

• The ability to take multiple biopsies.
• Biopsies area virtually painless
• Risk of bleeding and infection are minimized
• The instrument does not cut the tissue, therefore, it can be positioned and repositioned easily prior to taking the biopsy to assure accurate placement.

Below is a photo of the POI microbiopsy tool as compared with the standard cervical biopsy instrument.

POI microbiopsy tool

POI Microbiopsy Protocol

• A solution of 3% Acetic Acid is applied to the cervix
• The cervix is visually divided into quadrants

• Any abnormal areas are biopsied (especially biopsy abnormal areas at the squamo-columnar junction)
• Each normal quadrant is biopsied as 2, 4, 8, or 10 O’clock at the squamocolumnar junction (depending on the quadrant).
• More than one biopsy may be taken from any quadrant
• An endocervical curretage (ECC) is performed on all patients