Uterine Fibroid Embolization is Underutilized.

Written by
Michael Cumming, MD, MBA

Despite being extremely well studied and proven, uterine fibroid embolization remains underutilized resulting increased costs and unnecessary hysterectomies.

"A large nationwide study examining the treatment of uterine fibroids shows that the uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), a minimally invasive, image-guided treatment performed by interventional radiologists, is vastly underutilized, compared to hysterectomies—especially in rural and smaller hospitals. In fact, there were more than 65 times as many hysterectomies performed than UFEs, despite data showing that UFEs result in substantially lower costs and shorter hospital stays than hysterectomies, according to research presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 2017 Annual Scientific Meeting"

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