Vascular InterventionThe Impact of Uterine Fibroid Embolization on Resumption of Menses and Ovarian Function
Section snippets
• Patient Selection
Sixty-six women with symptomatic fibroids were treated with UFE from April 1998 to September 1999 at two institutions. One institution was a major tertiary care university medical center and the other was a community hospital with an active interventional radiology section. Indications for UFE included menorrhagia unresponsive to hormonal therapy and/or progressive bulk/pelvic pain symptoms. All patients were believed to be premenopausal and had been evaluated by an attending gynecologist to
RESULTS
Sixty-six premenopausal women (age range, 30–55 years) underwent bilateral UFE and were followed for an average of 21 weeks (range, 12–77 weeks). All patients included in the study had technically successful bilateral embolizations and all were available for follow-up. Patients who underwent UFE either refused any surgical intervention, were considered poor myomectomy candidates by their gynecologist, or did not desire future fertility. For example, a 30-year-old patient in our study, as a
DISCUSSION
The primary purpose of this study was to document the effect of UFE on menses and to measure the incidence of ovarian failure. In a multiinstitutional retrospective and prospective review of 66 patients, we determined that UFE is associated with ovarian failure in 14% of all patients. However, when stratifying our data by age, 43% of women 45 years of age or older developed ovarian failure, whereas no women younger than 45 years of age developed ovarian failure. Determination of the incidence
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