Women in the city can look forward to non-invasive, non-surgical treatment for uterine fibroids. On Thursday, Prathap C. Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals officially launched the MRI-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), as a treatment option.
Terming it as a welcome advancement in medicine, he said: “Introducing the new equipment is in line with the hospital's policy of continuing efforts in practising medicine and ways of bettering treatment of patients.”
The equipment is an addition to the MRI and costs Rs.4 to Rs.5 crore but provides women an option over conventional surgeries such as myomectomy and hysterectomy. Women who underwent the procedure had found immediate relief, said Bagyam Raghavan, senior consultant radiologist, Apollo Hospitals.
The procedure lasts three hours and the focussed ultrasound waves target only the fibroids thus saving the organ, she said.
According to her, a young woman who undergoes the treatment can consider pregnancy a year after treatment. The fibroid coagulates during the laser treatment and necrosis sets in.
Over a period of time (review is done after a month) the tissue is absorbed by the body.
While in myomectomy (removal of fibroids) the condition could recur, hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) prevents the formation of fibroids.
In most cases the fibroids, which are common in 40 per cent of women in the peri-menopaousal age, are benign.
But about 50 per cent of such patients have symptoms such as back ache, terminal pain during menstruation, urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction.
Bi-weekly clinic
Dr. Reddy said the hospital will launch a bi-weekly fibroid clinic at all its centres which offer gynaecology services. According to him, four hospitals in the country already have the equipment and in Tamil Nadu this is the first. “Within a few months we hope to have them in 14 other hospitals too. Wherever we have gynaecologists we will have the fibroid clinic,” he later told reporters.
The Food and Drug Administration-approved equipment, which has been used so far to treat around 1,000 women across the world, had reduced complication rate unlike the conventional hysterectomy and myomectomy, according to Raveendran Gandhi, senior director, Image Guided Therapy, Philips Healthcare.
The complication rate compared to the conventional procedures is lower and women returned to their routine a day after the procedure, Mr. Gandhi said. The equipment is used to treat bone metastasis also, he added.
