Routine interventional procedure may present new endometriosis treatment option
New research indicates that a common interventional radiology procedure could provide relief to patients struggling with the side effects of endometriosis.
Known to be extremely painful at times, many women consider flare-ups of the condition to be debilitating. Treatment options for endometriosis range from over-the-counter pain medication and hormone therapy to more invasive surgical methods, but even with treatment, many women continue to struggle with pain during their cycle. As such, improving the available treatment options is a priority of the women’s health community.
“Given the complex and multifactorial pathophysiology of endometriosis, there are challenges in developing effective treatment strategies that address the underlying mechanism of the disease with limited side effects,” co-authors Becky Chen, MBS, and Fiona Malone, MD, both with the department of interventional radiology at University of Illinois College of Medicine, explained. “As a result, there is an enormous unmet need for effective and minimally invasive treatments for this disorder.”
Experts believe there may be a way to treat the condition less invasively using an IR procedure routinely utilized in women’s health settings—uterine artery embolization (UAE). The procedure is typically used to control pelvic hemorrhage and treat uterine fibroids but has more recently been found effective in managing adenomyosis.
Endometriosis often co-occurs with fibroids and adenomyosis. As such, researchers hypothesized that UAE could be effective in treating pain related to endometriosis as well.
The team sought to determine whether endovascular treatment of fibroids and adenomyosis concurrent with endometriosis had any impact on UAE success rates. To do this, they retrospectively analyzed the cases of more than 100 patients who had been diagnosed with co-occurring endometriosis, fibroids and adenomyosis. Each patient’s chart indicated a history of dysmenorrhea or menorrhagia and all had undergone both UAE and post-procedural MRI.
Through this, the team observed statistically significant imaging responses post-treatment, but did not note any differences in clinical responses. These results signal that UAE could be successful in treating endometriosis, at least from an anatomical standpoint, according to differences in pre-and post-procedure imaging.
Although the procedure did not completely alleviate symptoms, researchers found the imaging response observed in their study to be encouraging for the potential use of UAE for treating endometriosis. The group is now planning to conduct additional research to determine whether UAE is safe and effective for treating endometriosis alone.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.