Application of high intensity focused ultrasound in the treatment of uterine fibroids in overweight/obese women.

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101088690 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1472-6874 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 14726874 NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Womens Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: [London] : BioMed Central, 2001-

Leiomyoma*/surgery ; Leiomyoma*/complications ; Leiomyoma*/therapy ; Obesity*/complications ; High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation*/methods ; Overweight*/complications ; Uterine Neoplasms*/surgery ; Uterine Neoplasms*/complications; Humans ; Female ; Retrospective Studies ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Treatment Outcome ; Quality of Life ; Uterine Myomectomy/methods

Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The retrospective medical review was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) of the Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital,.And the study was performed in accordance with the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki. All patients underwent a detailed pre-treatment evaluation to rule out malignancy, including clinical assessment, ultrasound, MRI, and biochemical marker testing. Written informed consent was obtained from all participating patients.All patients were managed with standard of care, and their spouses or authorized representatives were thoroughly informed about the surgical procedure, associated risks, and potential complications before the surgery.All patient privacy information is protected. Consent for publication: All data in this study do not involve patient sensitive information, so this section is not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Objective: To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) in the treatment of uterine fibroids in overweight/obese women.
Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 155 overweight/obese women with uterine fibroids treated at our hospital between January 2022 and January 2024. Among them, 75 patients underwent HIFU treatment (observation group), while 80 patients received conventional laparoscopic myomectomy (control group). Perioperative indicators, symptom improvement (assessed by the Symptom Severity Score, SSS), health-related quality of life (HRQL score), complications, and recurrence rates at 1-year post-treatment were compared between the two groups.
Results: All procedures were successfully completed in both groups. No significant differences were observed in baseline characteristics such as age, BMI, number of fibroids, maximum fibroid diameter, and hemoglobin levels between the two groups (P > 0.05). At 6 months and 1 year post-treatment, the observation group showed significantly better SSS scores (12.61 ± 1.22 vs. 15.89 ± 1.21; 10.40 ± 1.27 vs. 12.03 ± 1.33) and HRQL scores (89.35 ± 1.90 vs. 84.69 ± 1.24; 94.19 ± 1.16 vs. 91.69 ± 1.32) compared to the control group (P < 0.05). The total complication rate in the observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group (9.33% vs. 21.3%, χ² = 4.34, P = 0.04). No recurrence or fibroid enlargement was observed in the observation group at 1-year follow-up.
Conclusion: HIFU is an effective and safe treatment for uterine fibroids in overweight/obese women, offering advantages such as minimal invasiveness, fewer complications, and faster recovery. It represents a superior minimally invasive option for this patient population.
(© 2025. The Author(s).)

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2021QH1197 Startup Fund for scientific research, Fujian Medical University

Keywords: High-Intensity focused ultrasound; Obesity; Overweight; Uterine fibroids; Women

Date Created: 20250521 Date Completed: 20250522 Latest Revision: 20250524

20250524

PMC12096595

10.1186/s12905-025-03797-x

40399833