Data was collected from across 2 hospital sites; both King's College Hospital (Denmark hill) and Princess Royal University Hospital. The patient list was provided by the Imaging Informatics – PACS team, and data was gathered from local electronic systems (EPIC) containing historical records and from London care record.

Retrospective data collection  from 18th June 2010 – 18thSept. 2023 (over 13 years)  Including Women between 30-59 years with uterine fibroids +/- adenomyosis  who underwent UAE at KCH or PRUH site. Patient list was provided by Imaging Informatics – PACS Team.

In total, 239 women qualified for this audit and were identified to have had a UAE procedure from across both sites. (NB: PRUH started UAE in 2016, data  gathered prior to 2016 was from DH)

Intra-procedural complications were minimal at 2.5%; these were attributed to wire perforation which is a minor and non concerning complication. The majority of women (89%) had no complications post- procedure, with less than 6% experiencing minor complications e.g. fever, haematoma, pain, and one case of uterine artery necrosis.  Length of hospital stay post UAE was 1-3 days in 85% of our cohort with only 4% having a prolonged admission of >5 days. 

Follow up procedure includes an MRI at 6 months post op -57% had a follow up MRI and 13% had either a transvaginal ultrasound or an ultrasound abdomen. Analysis of the imaging reports revealed that 70%  of MRI resultsdemonstrated improvement radiologically with 68 scans commenting on interval change and 25 scans specificallycommenting on a reduction in size. For follow up USS images, 87.5% reported visible reduction in size.. 43.5% of women had been discharged.

In summary, UAE is an effective treatment for managing uterine fibroids, offering significant symptom relief. It is cost-effective in the short and long term, as only a small proportion of the women in our cohort required further surgical intervention. 

Our study demonstrates symptoms improvement in 80-90% of participants and a reduction in fibroid volume by 40-70%, notable drawbacks are that 32% of patients may require further intervention within five years post procedure. Data on reproductive outcomes following UAE remains limited, however studies indicate successful pregnancies following the procedure.  HOPEFUL study (1) demonstrated that Twenty-seven women who had had UAE reported 37 pregnancies after treatment resulting in 19 live births. We were however unable to accurately assess the impact on fertility due to the limited availability of data and missing documentation on reproductive outcomes in our cohort. It is important to note that the position of RCOG and RCR is that evidence is poor and remains poor due to age and the premenopausal nature of patients. This data does not guide whether patients are suitable or not for UAE but is helpful when counselling patients on the risk of infertility.