Abstract
Author(s): Tahar Ben Rhaiem, JarosÅaw KaroÅ, Marta Kochanowicz
Introduction. Abnormal uterine bleeding has a significant, negative impact on a woman’s everyday activity, and for many women often is a cause of poor health as well as deterioration of the quality of life. Endometrial ablation (EA) is one of the options of conservative treatment of abnormal bleeding from the uterine cavity in those women who wish to retain the uterus and in whom fertility is no longer desired. Material and method. The analysis covered the results of treatments in patients aged from 35 to 57, following ablation due to abnormal functional bleeding from the reproductive tract, with an endometrial destruction technique utilising thermal ablation with the ThermaChoice intrauterine thermal balloon from Johnson & Johnson. Results. Selected patients were interviewed by telephone after the thermal ablation treatment. In 47% of the patients the method used resulted in complete cessation of bleeding by the survey date. In 42% periods returned to normal. In 8% of the patients abnormal bleeding recrudesced (those were patients with myomas who did not consent to uterus removal – owing to thermal ablation the necessity of hysterectomy was able to be delayed). During 15 months after the treatment, 97% of the patients were satisfied with the treatment results, permanent satisfaction was reported by 89% of the patients, and only one patient was not satisfied with the results. Conclusions. The tests demonstrated very high efficacy of the ThermaChoice system in conservative treatment of abnormal uterine bleeding in selected patients. Within the patient population tested no complications were observed, neither immediate nor delayed. Patients treated with the ThermaChoice system report a high level of satisfaction with the results of the procedure performed.