Major Electronic Collection

Health care providers and the public now have a very large repository of knowledge they can call on when researching the treatment known as uterine artery embolization. The Society of Interventional Radiology has gathered a large electronic collection of articles written by professionals in the field. This procedure is used to treat several conditions that have an adverse effect on the uterus and which tend to be caused by the presence of uterine fibroids. The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR) virtual collection benefits the public in that it allows the user to see all abstracts on ongoing research related to this topic so that users don’t need to perform individual searches on subtopics.

Common Tumor

Uterine fibroids are the most common type of benign, non-cancerous growths that women can develop within or just outside of the uterus. Up until now, the treatment of choice for the condition has been the removal of the womb (hysterectomy) in cases where the fibroids cause symptoms. But experts now believe that most women with fibroids are good candidates for the procedure called uterine artery embolization. According to Albert A. Nemcek Jr., M.D., FSIR, “Uterine artery embolization is a treatment method for fibroids that is relatively noninvasive and has high success rates … This collection assembles relevant information about the interventional radiology treatment in one convenient place.” Nemcek, who is the editor of JVIR, a monthly journal that has been lauded as a professional and academic resource, believes that women and their physicians should be aware of this option.

Convenient Source

Section editor for women’s health in JVIR, James B. Spies, M.D., FSIR says, “The value for physicians and patients is the convenience of having all the recent articles from a major journal in one place. While it is not a comprehensive list of all recent uterine artery embolization articles, many of the major studies are included, particularly those that relate to the technical aspects of the procedure.”

Spies, a professor of radiology who also chairs the Department of Radiology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., adds that whenever there has been a new innovation for this procedure, JVIR has been in the forefront in reporting the advances. The new collection will aid physicians just beginning their training and gives physicians some grounding and a timeline of sorts for how the technique has evolved and improved as time elapses.

Uterine artery embolization is a minimally invasive treatment that affords the patient reduced risks, faster recovery, and less pain in comparison with traditional hysterectomy surgery. Radiologists employ imaging techniques so that the treatment is delivered straight to the fibroid. The treatment stops the flow of blood to the tumor, and this causes it to shrink.