The Birth of Colposcopy - The Road to Cervical Cancer Prevention
Von Franque, a Viennese investigator, assigned his assistant, Hans Hinselmann, to study leukoplakia. Hinselmann concluded that leukoplakia was always a sign of either a precancerous or a cancerous condition but that he needed better illumination and magnification for adequate study. Hence, he set out to device an instrument that would illuminate and magnify the cervix. Hinselmann was able not only to detect the smallest possible invasive cancer but also to begin describing the characteristics of the normal cervix and of intraepithelial lesions (carcinoma in situ and lesser grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia). While evaluating the effect of dilute acetic acid in removing cervical mucous, he discovered the colposcopic sign of acetowhitening.
Hans Hinselmann’s invention of the colposcope and his endeavors to understand the histologic basis of colposcopic findings establishes his place as the Father of Colposcopy. However, his place in history will be forever sullied by his complicity in unethical medical experiments that resulted in unbearable suffering inflicted on Jewish women during World War II in Auschwitz’s Block 10. After the war, Hinselmann was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment in recognition of his egregious role in medical experimentation, following which he immigrated to Argentina. He continued to lecture and promote colposcopy until his death in 1959. His legacy encompasses both irony and pathos in that he accomplished so much for the protection of women from cervical cancer, yet destroyed the lives of so many women through unethical and immoral experimentation.
1. Hans Hinselmann (1884–1959). This media file is in the public domain in the U.S.
2. Hinselmann watercolor of cervical ectopy.
3. Hinselmann watercolor of mosaic (Mosaic leukoplakia or Felderung) and punctation (ground leukoplakia or Leukoplakiegrund).
Source: Modern Colposcopy Textbook & Atlas, 3e E.J. Mayeaux, Jr; J. Thomas Cox
