SAN DIEGO — Laparoscopic myomectomy for large intramural myomas is a safe and useful treatment in select women with infertility problems, Mineto Morita, M.D., reported in a poster session at an international congress of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons.
He and his associates at Toho University, Tokyo, evaluated the outcomes in 30 infertile women who underwent laparoscopy to remove intramural myomas that measured at least 50 mm in diameter.
Mean age of the study participants was 32.9 years, the mean duration of infertility was 36.4 months, the mean number of myomas per patient was 1.8, and mean myoma diameter was 64.2 mm.
After laparoscopic removal of the intramural myomas, 15, or 50%, achieved spontaneous intrauterine pregnancy.
“Of 13 patients with infertility factors associated with uterine myomas, 3 (23%) became pregnant, whereas 12 of 17 patients (71%) with no other associated infertility factor became pregnant,” the investigators wrote in the poster.
No uterine ruptures occurred.
“All pregnancies were spontaneous, and 13 began within 1 year of the operation,” they wrote. Of the 10 patients who had a cesarean section, no adhesions were found on the myomectomy scar.
The operation delayed conception by a mean of 8.6 months.
Doug Brunk