Abstract
This study aimed to review the obstetric complications during subsequent pregnancies after uterine artery embolization (UAE) for postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) by exploring the relationship between prior UAE and obstetric complications through a meta-analysis. We conducted a systematic literature review through March 31, 2021, using PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials in compliance with the PRISMA guidelines and determined the effect of prior UAE for PPH on the rate of placenta accreta spectrum (PAS), PPH, placenta previa, hysterectomy, fetal growth restriction (FGR), and preterm birth (PTB). Twenty-three retrospective studies (2003–2021) met the inclusion criteria. They included 483 pregnancies with prior UAE and 320,703 pregnancies without prior UAE. The cumulative results of all women with prior UAE indicated that the rates of obstetric complications PAS, hysterectomy, and PPH were 16.3% (34/208), 6.5% (28/432), and 24.0% (115/480), respectively. According to the patient background-matched analysis based on the presence of prior PPH, women with prior UAE were associated with higher rates of PAS (odds ratio [OR] 20.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.27–132.41) and PPH (OR 5.32, 95% CI 1.40–20.16) but not with higher rates of hysterectomy (OR 8.93, 95% CI 0.43–187.06), placenta previa (OR 2.31, 95% CI 0.35–15.22), FGR (OR 7.22, 95% CI 0.28–188.69), or PTB (OR 3.00, 95% CI 0.74–12.14), compared with those who did not undergo prior UAE. Prior UAE for PPH may be a significant risk factor for PAS and PPH during subsequent pregnancies. Therefore, at the time of delivery, clinicians should be more attentive to PAS and PPH when women have undergone prior UAE. Since the number of women included in the patient background-matched study was limited, further investigations are warranted to confirm the results of this study.
Highlights
This study aimed to review the obstetric complications during subsequent pregnancies after uterine artery embolization (UAE) for postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) by exploring the relationship between prior UAE and obstetric complications through a meta-analysis
These key words were entered in PubMed, Scopus, and CENTRAL to identify studies that examined the association between prior UAE and the outcomes of interest (MeSH terms were used for the PubMed and CENTRAL searches)
Of the 23 included studies, 18 were non-comparator studies[13,16,21,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48] and five were comparator studies[18,19,20,33,49]. Among these five comparator studies, the patient’s background was matched by including only women with previous PPH in two s tudies[19,20]. In these two studies[19,20], we determined the prevalence of obstetric complications for women with previous PPH with or without UAE
Summary
This study aimed to review the obstetric complications during subsequent pregnancies after uterine artery embolization (UAE) for postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) by exploring the relationship between prior UAE and obstetric complications through a meta-analysis. The cumulative results of all women with prior UAE indicated that the rates of obstetric complications PAS, hysterectomy, and PPH were 16.3% (34/208), 6.5% (28/432), and 24.0% (115/480), respectively. First-line treatment for PPH includes pharmacological measures, intrauterine tamponade, uterine artery ligation, and uterine compression sutures; uterine artery embolization (UAE) is performed for women with treatment-refractory severe PPH6–12. If these procedures cannot achieve homeostasis, hysterectomy is performed. This study aimed to determine the effect of prior UAE on obstetric complications, including PAS, and maternal outcomes of subsequent pregnancies
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