While uterine fibroids rarely pose a serious health risk, their effects can severely compromise a woman’s comfort and lifestyle. They can cause heavy menstrual bleeding and pain, including pressure on the bladder and bowel. Fibroids can also complicate pregnancies.
For years, gynecologists have relied on surgery to remove fibroids, sometimes performing hysterectomies as part of a fibroid removal surgery. Thankfully, the expert physicians at Unique Interventional Radiology can eliminate most women’s uterine fibroids with a safe, non-surgical procedure: uterine fibroid embolization, or UFE.
Our doctors use “conscious sedation” for patients who undergo UFE, so they remain awake. During the outpatient procedure, our interventional radiologists insert a catheter into a blood vessel in the patient’s thigh. Then, using x-ray imaging to see the catheter’s position, the physician targets the blood vessels that feed the fibroid. Next, he or she injects the vessels with a special substance that acts like glue to block – or embolize – the blood flow to the fibroid.
Without a source of blood, the fibroid shrinks and may even disappear. Once the fibroid is gone (or is much smaller than its original size), most patients no longer experience symptoms. In fact, 85 to 90 percent of women who undergo UFE report significant reduction in symptoms, sometimes even in a few days. And most women can return to normal activities in less than a week.