NEW ORLEANS, LA -- April 4, 2005 -- Five years of follow-up show that uterine embolization yields durable results that are equivalent to those of myomectomy, investigators reported here on April 1^st at the 30^th annual meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology.

"Many women are looking for an alternative to major surgery to address uterine fibroids, and this is a minimally invasive alternative," said principal investigator James B. Spies, MD, professor of interventional radiology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC. "The symptom control that's provided by embolization is very durable; 73% of the women in this study had continued symptom control 5 years later. This compares very favourably with surgical myomectomy, which is the primary uterine-sparing alternative."

The investigators conducted a prospective ongoing study because they wanted to know how long patients who had undergone embolization for uterine fibroids enjoyed improvement of symptoms and how frequently they had to have a subsequent procedure to address their fibroids.

At the meeting they reported on the results of 200 consecutive patients who were followed for up to 5 years.Each patient was followed for a minimum of 4 years, and 170 patients have been followed for 5 years.

The investigators assessed the women at annual intervals with a questionnaire; at these time points they documented any interventions, their menstrual cycle regularity, and the status of their symptoms. The study design defined a failure of treatment during each follow-up appointment as a hysterectomy, definitive myomectomy, or repeat embolization that had occurred in the preceding interval. At each interval the investigative team obtained summary statistics to assess the symptom status, failure rates, and hysterectomy rates for each interval.

Among these initial patients, the investigators completed follow-up for 95% in the first year, 80% at 2 years, 91% at 3 years, and 89% at 4 years. Of those currently eligible for the 5-year follow-up, data were available for 87%.

At the 1-year, 87% of those with complete data had continued improvement of symptoms. Failure rate was 8.4% -- 10 women had a hysterectomy; four had a definitive myomectomy; and two had either repeat embolization or angiography. In addition to those who had these procedures, 5% had no improvement of symptoms.

Four years after the procedure, 80.4% of 179 patients who completed follow-up had continued improvement in symptoms. At that time, 3.3% had no improvement and treatment had failed in 15.6%.

Of 148 patients who were evaluated at 5 years, treatment had failed in 23.6%. There were 24 hysterectomies, eight myomectomy and three repeat embolizations, while 72% continued to have improvement of symptoms. At least four of the hysterectomies had an indication other than recurrent fibroids; none had complications.

Three patients died due to unrelated causes during the study period.