Some Newer Treatments For Uterine Fibroids Improve Recovery Time - Jury Is Out On Long-term Impact

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Endocrinology
Article Date: 28 Jul 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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Women who undergo uterine artery embolization, a newer, less invasive treatment for uterine fibroids, have shorter recoveries and spend less time in the hospital than women who have hysterectomies, according to a new research review by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. However, few studies have compared the new procedure's complications or long-term symptom relief with the older treatments,

Uterine fibroids - benign tumors that form within the womb -- are common in women of childbearing age and by age 50, more than 80 percent of black women and 70 percent of white women are estimated to have these growths. Uterine fibroids can cause pain, heavy bleeding, frequent urination, and other problems.

AHRQ's review also found that women who have laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy, which is less invasive that traditional abdominal hysterectomy, usually leave the hospital sooner, recover at home faster, and need less pain medicine.

Overall, however, the research review found that there is still not enough scientific information to enable women and their doctors to directly compare the benefits and harms of alternative ways of treating uterine fibroids. Research is also lacking for the long-term symptom relief of another new form of treatment -- ultrasound ablation - in which magnetic resonance image-guided ultrasound beams kill fibroid cells without harming surrounding tissues.

To read Management of Uterine Fibroids: An Update of the Evidence, conducted for AHRQ by RTI International-University of North Carolina Evidence-based Practice Center, go to here.

http://www.ahrq.gov

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