The principle of interventional treatment for uterine fibroids

  Uterine fibroids, or uterine smooth muscle tumors, have an incidence of 20% to 25% and are one of the common benign tumors in gynecology, most often occurring in non-menopausal women aged 30-50 years. The cause of the disease is not clear, but it is currently thought to be related to estrogen and progesterone. Uterine fibroids are mainly formed by the proliferation of uterine smooth muscle and are often multiple and vary in size. Depending on the location of the fibroids in the uterus, they can be classified as: submucosal fibroids, interstitial fibroids and subplasma fibroids.  Common symptoms of fibroids include: increased menstrual flow, prolonged periods, anemia; abdominal mass; abdominal pain, back pain, dysmenorrhea; abnormal bowel movements; and also infertility and miscarriage. Those who have symptoms that affect their work and life need to be treated.  Traditional treatments for fibroids include symptomatic treatment with drugs, surgical removal of fibroids and total hysterectomy. However, the effect of medication is not good in some patients, and the fibroids may recur after stopping medication. In 1995, RAVINA et al. performed bilateral uterine artery embolization to create a new and effective method for the minimally invasive treatment of fibroids. This treatment has now been proven effective and is widely performed worldwide. Our department has been treating patients with this procedure for more than 10 years, and the technique is advanced and mature.  The principle of bilateral uterine artery embolization is that the arteries supplying uterine fibroids are the uterine arteries bilaterally, and embolization of the uterine arteries will lead to ischemic necrosis of the fibroids, thus achieving the goal of treatment. The whole treatment procedure is simple and minimally invasive. The procedure consists of the patient lying flat on the operating table, conscious, with local anesthesia only on the right or left thigh root. After successful puncture of the femoral artery using the Seldinger technique, a 5F catheter sheath is placed and left for further manipulation. A 5F catheter (only about 1.5 mm thick) is delivered through the catheter sheath and the lower abdominal aorta is angiographed to fully understand the morphology and opening of the bilateral uterine arteries and to adequately assess the myoma. The bilateral uterine arteries were then hyper-selected for access and angiographically confirmed, respectively. Afterwards, PVA embolization pellets or a mixture of pinyamycin and iodine oil were injected via catheter for treatment purpose. After the drug injection, the uterine artery angiogram is reviewed to understand the results of the procedure. Postoperatively, the patient is required to remove the catheter sheath from the groin and apply pressure to stop bleeding without suturing.  Common intraoperative and postoperative complications include: vague lower abdominal pain in some patients, which is relieved with symptomatic management; increased vaginal discharge in some patients for one week after surgery; hypothermia in a small percentage of patients, which improves within one week; and amenorrhea in approximately 1% of patients, of which some patients may return to normal on their own.  Long-term clinical experience confirms that bilateral uterine artery embolization is effective in the treatment of uterine fibroids. Among them, the effective rate of treatment is about 81-90% for increased menstrual flow, 64-96% for lower abdominal cramps and frequent urination, 100% for anemia, and 83% for dysmenorrhea; some clinical studies have proved that all uterine fibroids shrink more than 50% in size after interventional treatment.  Therefore, bilateral uterine artery embolization for uterine fibroids is a new effective, low-injury, low-risk minimally invasive treatment method. It can be the treatment of choice for young patients with uterine fibroids who require fertility or preservation of the uterus.