The Late-Term Pregnancy Proportion of Women Experiencing Postpartum Hemorrhage and Symptomatic Fibroids Following Uterine Artery Embolization: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: There are short of systematical analyze of the late-term pregnancy proportion of women experiencing postpartum hemorrhage and symptomatic fibroids following uterine artery embolization (UAE). Methods: This was a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of existing studies. Results: In total, we identified 497 pregnancies following UAE; 49 patients chose to abort their pregnancies, 79 miscarried during the early- or middle-terms of pregnancy, and 378 pregnancies successfully progressed into the late-term (>28 weeks). When considering the included studies, 58.33%–100% of pregnancies successfully reached the late-term. When considering all studies, the proportion of subjects achieving a late-term pregnancy was 96% (95% confidence interval [CI], 90%–100%) when using a random model (I2 = 21.08, p < 0.001). With regards to the methods used to perform embolization, the proportion of late-term pregnancies were 92% (95% CI, 79%–100%) in the absorbable Embosphere group and 88% (95% CI, 79%–95%) in the non-absorbable Embosphere group. The proportion of patients achieving late-term pregnancy after UAE was 93% (95% CI, 85%–93%) in the group experiencing postpartum hemorrhage and 82% (95% CI, 73%–90%) in those with symptomatic fibroids. Conclusions: Our analyses indicate that patients have a good chance of a successful pregnancy if they experience postpartum hemorrhage patients and symptomatic fibroids patients if they wish to preserve their fertility.