What is uterine artery embolization procedure for the treatment of fibroids?
Uterine artery embolization is a fairly new procedure developed to shrink fibroids without surgical removal of them. The procedure, performed by an interventional radiologist, involves injecting the embolizing agent to both uterine arteries (blocking the main blood supply to the uterus), producing temporal ischemic change (low blood flow, thus low oxygen saturation) to the entire uterus, including fibroids, thereby causing degeneration (death) of the fibroids. Compared to normal uterine cells, fibroid cells are much more sensitive to low oxygen saturation, resulting in quick death in a low oxygen environment. When the main blood supply to the uterus is diminished greatly by blocking both uterine arteries with embolizing agent, the normal uterine tissue will continue to survive but not the fibroids, which will die and eventually be absorbed by the uterus. The problem arises when the patient has large volume of degenerated (dead) fibroid tissue within the uterus, which can cause some deg
