Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Long Term Effectiveness of Ultrasound on Uterine Fibroids

Filed under: Ob/Gyn

The New York Times has an article on the latest study into the effectiveness of MRgFUS (Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound) on uterine fibroids. Sadly, the results are nothing but murky.

From NYT:

Last week, a much-awaited paper in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology reported on how women fared at least 24 months after focused ultrasound treatment in clinical trials.

The paper and news releases promoting it stated that patients "have durable symptom relief," but added that "the risk of additional procedures is high." It did not reveal the number of patients who sustained improvement for two years or give a clear breakdown of outcomes, to the annoyance of some critics.

"Much of the data one would expect to see in this kind of study is missing," said Dr. William Parker, a gynecologist in Santa Monica, Calif., who is a director of the nonprofit National Uterine Fibroids Foundation. "As a clinician, this doesn't help me."

Neither the study nor an interview with its lead author yielded a clear-cut answer to the question likely to be uppermost in patients' minds: "How likely am I to get sustained relief from this procedure?"

More from NYT...

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