Ultrasound-guided endometrial polypectomy could be a lower-cost, easily accessible alternative to hysteroscopy for women with abnormal uterine bleeding and polyps, researchers reported at the 2022 annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The prospective study of 30 patients who underwent the experimental procedure showed that clinicians were able to remove all the polyps they identified quickly and without sedation.
The technique is a “clever way to address endometrial polyps,” said Lara Harvey, MD, MPH, a minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn., who was not involved in the study.
“If you’re a physician with access to in-office ultrasound and you’re familiar with saline infusion sonohysterogram, then this might be a useful approach without a lot of added expense, but more research is needed to validate the technique,” Dr. Harvey said in an interview.
The new technique was initially developed at the University of South Florida as an alternative to surgery for patients with medical comorbidities that placed them at an increased risk of complications with general anesthesia, according to Lauri Hochberg, MD, director of gynecologic imaging at the University of South Florida, Tampa.
However, “we found that it was effective and well-tolerated in general and began offering it to all patients with endometrial polyps, even if they were healthy and at low risk for surgical complications,” Dr. Hochberg told this news organization.
The procedure is performed by introducing pediatric grasping forceps into the uterus with ultrasound guidance. Doctors direct patients to take ibuprofen prior to the procedure, in addition to administering misoprostol intravaginally the night prior in cases of cervical stenosis. Lidocaine is also injected into the cervix and uterine cavity prior to polyp removal, both for anesthesia and to help visualize polyps on an ultrasound.
The 30 patients included in the study had polyps 5 cm or smaller in size and abnormal uterine bleeding. Dr. Hochberg said she chose 5 cm as a cut-off because larger lesions require more procedure time over potentially two visits to remove using the new approach. Patients were mean age 55 years, mean body mass index of 31, and 70% had postmenopausal bleeding.
According to Dr. Hochberg and Papri Sarkar, MD, a 4th-year resident working with her, procedures lasted an average of 12 minutes and allowed for complete polypectomy in all cases. The average polyp volume was 1.26 cm3 and pathologists found two cancerous lesions.
Patients reported median pain and satisfaction scores of 5 and 10 on 10-point scales, respectively. In addition, 13 of 16 patients who returned 3 months later for a saline infusion sonography showed no evidence of polyp recurrence and 14 patients reported complete resolution of symptoms.
Although a direct comparison of the in-office procedure and conventional hysteroscopy would help better define the role of the procedure, the findings indicate it is “safe and effective” and “would be a great tool to help patients” with abnormal uterine bleeding, Dr. Hochberg said.
“Physicians would need to learn the skill of ultrasound-guided removal, but this can be accomplished with study,” she added.
Dr. Harvey also expressed concern that because the new procedure does not allow for direct visualization of the base of the polyp, physicians may not excise the entire lesion. Providers interested in the procedure should “proceed with caution” until there are larger studies published, she said.
“I think widely deploying this technique for postmenopausal bleeding in particular, where there is a higher chance of endometrial cancer, would require really good data comparing it to the gold standard of hysteroscopy and showing that, yes, it is as good at removing polyps and also at diagnosing cancer,” Dr. Harvey said.
Dr. Harvey, Dr. Hochberg, and Dr. Sarkar have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.