Which invasive treatment is best for uterine fibroids?

Uterine-fibroid embolisation (UFE) effectively treats fibroids with fewer complications compared with myomectomy, a retrospective study suggests.

The US research, presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology in Austin, Texas, earlier this week, analysed the treatment outcomes of 950 women with uterine fibroids.

Half underwent UFE and the other half myomectomy. All were followed up for seven years.

The study found that women who had myomectomy had a 2.9% rate of blood transfusion, which was significantly higher than the 1.1% rate for women who had UFE.

UFE resulted in a higher rate of symptomatic improvement in menorrhagia (75.4% vs 49.5%), lead author Dr Jemianne Bautista-Jia of Kaiser Permanente Southern California told the meeting.

In women with pre-procedural anemia (Hb<12g/dL), both groups experienced a statistically significant