UAE vs FAS

Dear Dr. del Junco Jr,
I was very excited to find here in Hawaii two interventional radiologists who perform UAE’s and seem to have a very high success rate in stopping the growth of the fibroids and eliminating the painful symptoms and stopping the bleeding; all the relief of which most of us are looking for, and is done at a very low cost, covered by insurance and as an outpatient. However, after stumbling onto your website, I recieved some disturbing information against the UAE procedure from one your patients in an e-mail that now has me all confused. Help. Toni

Dear Toni-
I am not yet an advocate of the UAE procedure. I am however pleased that new technology is being studied for benign female conditions, in addition to the over-performed traditional hysterectomy.
UAE has been found to be effective for single fibroid treatment and the reduction of symptoms. However In my practice I have found that most women do not have a single fibroid. Many fibroids are not visible on ultrasound, either due to position in the uterus or size, and go undetected until the time of surgery. If these fibroids are left inside the patient and go untreated, the pathology only continues to worsen.

I am also not a proponant of leaving degenerating tumors in the body. UAE only blocks the blood supply to the tissue, but does not remove the actual tumor. I had to treat one UAE patient 3 months after her procedure for a severly infected and necrotic uterus-the blood supply to the uterine muscle had been disrupted, not just the tumor, and part of her uterus decayed. This patient required an emergent partial hysterectomy.

Our FAS program, safely and effectively removes as many tumors as possible without these potentially serious side effects.
Good Luck