Short- and long-term evaluation of disease-specific symptoms and quality of life following uterine artery embolization of fibroids.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Psilopatis, Iason; Fleckenstein, Florian Nima; Collettini, Federico; Can, Elif; Frisch, Anne; Gebauer, Bernhard; Fehrenbach, Uli; Torsello, Giovanni Federico; Schnapauff, Dirk; David, Matthias; Wieners, Gero
- Source
- Insights into Imaging. 6/21/2022, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p1-10. 10p.
- Subject
- *UTERINE artery
*QUALITY of life
*UTERINE fibroids
*INSTITUTIONAL review boards
*SIMULATED patients
- Language
- ISSN
- 1869-4101
Background: The purpose of this study is to evaluate uterine artery embolization (UAE) for the management of symptomatic uterine leiomyomas regarding changes in quality of life after treatment in a large patient collective. This study retrospectively analyzed prospectively acquired standardized questionnaires of patients treated with UAE. Clinical success was evaluated before and after embolization. Patients were stratified into short- (≤ 7 months) and long-term (> 7 months) follow-up groups depending on the time of completion of the post-interventional questionnaire. Uterine leiomyomas were furthermore divided into small (< 10 cm) and large (≥ 10 cm) tumors based on the diameter of the dominant fibroid. Results: A total of 245 patients were included into the final data analysis. The Kaplan–Meier analysis showed a cumulative clinical success rate of 75.8% after 70 months until the end of follow-up (9.9 years). All questionnaire subscales showed a highly significant clinical improvement from baseline to short- and long-term follow-up (p < 0.001). Patients with small fibroids showed a significantly better response to UAE in multiple subcategories of the questionnaire than patients with fibroids ≥ 10 cm who had a twofold higher probability of re-intervention in the Cox-regression model. Conclusions: UAE is an effective treatment method for symptomatic fibroids that leads to quick relief of fibroid-related symptoms with marked improvement of quality of life and is associated with a low risk for re-interventions. Patients with small fibroids tend to show a better response to UAE compared to patients with large fibroids. Trial registration Charité institutional review board, EA4/167/20. Registered 27 November 2020—Retrospectively registered. https://ethikkommission.charite.de/ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]