The long-term outcomes of fibroid embolisation look promising. The FIBROID Registry in the US is a voluntary multi-centre database that chronicles the results of fibroid embolisation. There are records of over 2000 women and they have a unique symptom score method which allows quality-of-life measurements to be made and compared prospectively.
The results are available for the first year after embolisation and 95% of patients had significantly improved symptoms and quality-of-life scores. Only 3% underwent hysterectomy within a year of treatment. The results are remarkable with the best outcomes being achieved when the fibroids were small, submucosal and presented with heavy menstrual loss (Spies et al Obstets Gynecol 2005;106:1309-18).
