Cervical conization (LEEP cone)

Cervical conization, also called a cone biopsy, is surgery done on the cervix, the lower part of the uterus, or womb. A biopsy means taking out a piece of tissue to study it. Here, that piece comes out shaped like a cone, with the abnormal tissue inside.

Think about cutting an eye out of a potato: you push the tip of the knife in at an angle, turn it all the way around, and out comes a little cone-shaped piece with the bad spot inside. On the cervix, the cut can be made with a loop, a ring of wire heated by electrical current, and that's what's known as a LEEP cone. It can also be done with a scalpel, the surgeon's blade, or with a laser, a tightly focused beam of light.

Afterward, the cone is checked under a microscope for cancer. The procedure is done to find cervical cancer or the early changes that lead to it when colposcopy, which means looking at the cervix through a magnifying instrument, can't find the cause of an abnormal Pap test, the test that collects cells from the cervix. And if all the diseased tissue came out in that cone, the same way a potato is clean once you take out the whole eye, that same biopsy also serves as treatment.