Can focused ultrasound treat leukoplakia vulvae?

  In 2009, under the background of “Healthy Chongqing” activity, our district, Chongqing Medical University and Hefei jointly carried out the “One Million Rural Women’s Gynecological Disease Screening Activity”, taking the opportunity to promote high-frequency focused ultrasound treatment of gynecological diseases. The 1-year campaign is now coming to an end, and the focused ultrasound treatment of cervical and vulvar lesions has accumulated some clinical experience and received good results. Non-invasive treatment of gynecological diseases is being gradually accepted by medical practitioners and patients. Recently, a 24-year-old patient suffering from vulvar leukoplakia was admitted for focused ultrasound treatment, and the patient was very happy with the results. The patient was 24 years old and had vulvar itching for 2+ years as her main symptom. 2+ years ago, she started to have vulvar itching with burning pain and did not pay attention to it because she had no history of sexual life. Later, her symptoms gradually worsened, and she was diagnosed with “vulvar leukoplakia” at a local hospital, and surgery was recommended. The patient had no sexual history for 6+ months and did not undergo surgery, and was given medication such as propecia. In the past 2+ months, the itching symptoms could not be relieved by medication, so she visited our hospital. The diagnosis of vulvar biopsy was “vulvar atrophic mossy lesion”. Because the lesion involved the entire labia majora and minora and the urethra, and the lesion was expanding rapidly, the patient was admitted to the hospital and given high frequency focused ultrasound treatment. Six days after the operation, the edema of the vulva had subsided significantly, and the skin elasticity and color were not abnormal, and the patient was discharged. The cost of the operation was about 1500 RMB.  For vulvar atrophic lichenoid lesions, traditional treatment includes medication, physical therapy, and surgery, with a high recurrence rate. For such young patients with extensive and rapidly expanding lesions, surgical treatment is often recommended if medication is not effective. The surgical procedure is vulvectomy. For a 24-year-old patient with a sexual history of 6+ months who has not had children, this treatment seems a bit “cruel” and the patient has many concerns. However, with the widespread use of focused ultrasound, it is undoubtedly a great blessing for such patients, as focused ultrasound has the advantages of no skin damage, no anatomical changes, and quick recovery, and is more easily accepted by patients. Focused ultrasound has the advantages of no skin damage, no anatomical changes, quick recovery, and is more acceptable to patients. We are glad that our hospital is now able to carry out such treatment. We hope that more and more patients will benefit from this treatment.  High-frequency focused ultrasound is also able to treat uterine fibroids and adenomyosis non-invasively. Because of the high cost of the equipment, there is not much hope that it will be carried out in our region. However, the price of cervical lesions and vulvovaginal lesions is relatively low, so we hope to promote it in hospitals at all levels, so that patients with gynecological diseases located in rural areas can also receive good and humane treatment.