Zapping Fibroids
Reported December 1, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Patients’ pain from uterine fibroids can be helped without undergoing a hysterectomy, reveals a new study from researchers at Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The doctors performed magnetic resonance-guided, focused ultrasound surgery on 160 women with uterine fibroids. The procedure uses high-intensity ultrasound waves to non-invasively zero in on fibroids without affecting surrounding tissue.
In two-thirds of patients, the treatment time was limited to two hours. The other third could be treated for up to two-and-a-half hours. Both groups reported substantial relief one year after treatment, but those in the intensified treatment group had slightly better symptom improvement compared to the moderate group.
“This treatment immediately stops blood flow in the fibroid tissue, which results in a significant, sustained decrease in symptoms for up to 12 months,” says lead study author Fiona M. Fennessy, M.D., Ph.D., instructor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and staff radiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Uterine fibroids are benign growths of the muscle in the uterus affecting between 25 percent and 50 percent of American women. They also account for one-third of the hysterectomies performed in this country. Symptoms include excessive bleeding, frequent urination, pelvic pain and infertility.
“We have shown that treating fibroids with an optimized, less restrictive protocol allows for treatment of a greater fibroid volume, which results in even greater symptomatic relief,” says Dr. Fennessy.
SOURCE: Annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 2005