Outpatient treatment OK for heavy periods

Women undergoing a treatment called thermal balloon ablation for excessive menstrual bleeding can be safely treated on an outpatient basis, UK researchers.

The technique involves insertion into the uterus of a balloon that is inflated and heated to destroy endometrial tissue lining the womb. While the procedure is minimally invasive, according to the investigators, it is usually performed on an inpatient basis under general anesthesia.

However, Dr. Thomas Justin Clark told AMN Health, "We have demonstrated that thermal ablation of the endometrium ... is easily conducted and well tolerated in an outpatient or office setting, avoiding the need for general anesthetic."

Clark and his colleagues at Birmingham Women's Hospital looked into the feasibility of performing thermal balloon ablation in an outpatient clinic using only a local anesthetic.

The procedure was successfully completed in 50 of 53 women, the researchers report in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility. Only one failure was "directly attributable to the outpatient, conscious setting."

Moreover, Clark added, "The rates of improvement in menstrual symptoms and satisfaction with the outcome of treatment were between 70 percent and 80 percent, which is comparable to published inpatient data."

Overall, he concluded, the outpatient technique "represents a potentially cost-effective approach to the treatment of menstrual problems" that aren't successfully treated with medical therapy.

SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, November 2004.