Despite the long-term safety and efficacy of UFE, the hysterectomy numbers in the United States have changed very little in the past decade. It is interesting to note that of all of the available treatment options for fibroids, the largest published series is the UFE National Fibroid Registry, which has published information on the UFE treatment of more than 3,000 women. The three-year data from this trial was recently published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. Interventional radiology has consistently published in gynecology journals to increase awareness of the treatment.

Interventional radiologists can provide second opinions and assess whether UFE is a treatment option. Interventional radiologists use MRI to delineate the location of each fibroid, determine if a tumor can be embolized, detect alternate causes for the symptoms, identify pathology that could prevent a woman from having UFE and avoid ineffective treatments. This cannot be determined by ultrasound imaging in the gynecologist's office; interventional radiologists can help gynecologists manage these patients.


Abstract 143, "Community Awareness of UAE as a Treatment Option for Women Suffering With Symptomatic Fibroids," can be found at www.SIRmeeting.org.

About Uterine Fibroid Embolization

Uterine fibroid embolization is performed by interventional radiologists, physicians who specialize in minimally invasive treatments and offer diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. Embolization is a common interventional radiology treatment for benign and cancerous tumors. With uterine fibroid embolization, an interventional radiologist makes a tiny nick in the skin, about the size of a pencil tip and inserts a catheter into the femoral artery. Using real-time imaging, the physician guides the catheter up the artery and then releases tiny particles, the size of grains of sand, into the blood vessels feeding the fibroid, cutting off its blood supply and causing it to shrink and die and symptoms to subside. Most women return home the next day and can resume normal activities. There is less risk of serious complication with UFE, and these complication rates are lower than those of hysterectomy and myomectomy.

About the Society of Interventional Radiology

Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, usually in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial
disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine.

Today many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit www.SIRweb.org.

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