Minimally invasive and scarless treatment of uterine fibroids

  Uterine fibroids are benign tumors formed by the proliferation of smooth muscle tissue in the uterus, and are the most common benign tumors in women. For small or asymptomatic fibroids, no special treatment is usually needed, and the tumor will mostly shrink after menopause. For those with symptoms or larger tumors, they should be treated promptly. The traditional treatment for fibroids is surgery, but surgery is risky and expensive, and is particularly inappropriate for those who need to preserve the uterus in order to have children.  Interventional medicine is the third clinical discipline after internal medicine and surgery. Interventional treatment is different from both “medicine and injection” in internal medicine and “open surgery” in surgery, but it is guided by high-definition medical imaging instruments, and the catheter is placed into the tumor site through a small incision. The catheter is placed into the tumor part of the body through a small incision guided by a high-definition medical imaging instrument, and then the tumor is infused with anti-tumor drugs or the blood supply to the tumor tissue is blocked through the blood supply artery to cause necrosis and shrinkage of the tumor within a short time to achieve the purpose of treatment. Interventional therapy is widely used in the treatment of many tumor diseases because of its advantages such as less trauma and fewer complications. In developed countries, interventional treatment has become the preferred treatment for uterine fibroids.  The main interventional treatment for uterine fibroids is uterine artery embolization (UAE), which involves cutting a small hole the size of a grain of rice at the root of one thigh, inserting a special catheter into the blood supply artery of the fibroid, and applying an embolic agent to block the blood supply to the fibroid to “starve” the fibroid. The procedure takes less time, as fast as 30 minutes, and can be completed in about an hour. It is done under local anesthesia, so the operation is painless and the recovery is quick. The postoperative reaction is mild, mainly manifesting as slight transient pain and low fever in the lower abdomen, which is a normal reaction after the intervention and can disappear after symptomatic treatment. There are no special requirements after the operation, generally no vomiting phenomenon after the operation can eat, 24 hours can be free to move; 3-5 days can be discharged, rest 7-10 days can be normal work.  Our department is one of the earliest interventional treatment units in China. After nearly thirty years of development, interventional treatment of uterine fibroids has become a mature technology and has achieved better results in clinical practice. The method does not require opening the abdomen or removing the uterus, preserving the function of the uterus; less side effects and complications; quick recovery, exact efficacy; and short hospitalization time.