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Safety and Effectiveness of UFE in Fibroids Larger than 10 cm

  • Clinical Investigation
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Abstract

Introduction

Early literature suggested that the size of the uterus, the size of the dominant fibroid, and the amount of applied embolization particles would be the risk factors for major postprocedural complications, but recent publications have confuted these early results. The purpose of our study was to evaluate whether the size of the dominant fibroid would influence the complication rate and effectiveness in a large single-center cohort.

Patients and Methods

From 28 April 2008 until 31 December 2012, 303 patients had uterine artery embolization (UAE). 262 patients had small [largest diameter <10 cm (Group 1)], 41 patients had large [largest diameter >10 cm (Group 2)] fibroid. UAE was performed from unilateral femoral access using 500–710 and 355–500 µm polyvinyl alcohol particles. Periprocedural and postprocedural complications and numerical analog quality-of-life scores (0—unbearable symptoms; 100—perfect quality of life) were listed and statistically analyzed.

Results

During the mean follow-up time [7.79 ± 5.16 (SD) month], data on 275 patients (275/303 = 90.8 %) were available. Quality-of-life score was 33.3 ± 23.5 and 33.5 ± 24.1 before, whereas 85.6 ± 16.0 and 81.5 ± 23.5 after UAE in Group 1 and Group 2, respectively, (Mann–Whitney U test one-sided, p = 0.365). There were 4 myoma expulsions, 1 acute myomectomy, and 2 acute hysterectomies reported from Group 1, meanwhile 1 myoma expulsion, 1 acute myomectomy, and 2 acute hysterectomies were documented from Group 2 (NS differences).

Conclusion

There was no significant difference in the effectiveness and in the number of minor and major complications between fibroids with <10 cm largest diameter compared to those >10 cm.

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Conflict of interest

Viktor Bérczi, Éva Valcseva, Dóra Kozics, Ildikó Kalina, Pál Kaposi, Péter Sziller, Szabolcs Várbíró, and Erzsébet Mária Botos have no conflict of interest.

Statement of Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

Statement of Human and Animal Rights

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Oncotherapy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    Viktor Bérczi, Éva Valcseva, Dóra Kozics, Ildikó Kalina, Pál Kaposi & Erzsébet Mária Botos

  2. 2nd Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    Péter Sziller & Szabolcs Várbíró

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  1. Viktor Bérczi
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  2. Éva Valcseva
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  8. Erzsébet Mária Botos
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Correspondence to Viktor Bérczi.

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Bérczi, V., Valcseva, É., Kozics, D. et al. Safety and Effectiveness of UFE in Fibroids Larger than 10 cm. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol 38, 1152–1156 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00270-014-1045-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00270-014-1045-4

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