Clinical outcome of high-intensity focused ultrasound as the preoperative management of cesarean scar pregnancy

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the feasibility and safety of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment as the preoperative management of cesarean scar pregnancy (CSP).

Materials and methods: 225 patients with definite Type I CSP were treated with suction curettage under hysteroscopic guidance. Among them, 103 patients chose HIFU treatment before hysteroscopy (assign to the HIFU group), and the other 122 patients without any pretreatment before hysteroscopy to the control group. The successful rate, volume of intraoperative blood loss, time for serum β-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) level returned to normal, gestational sac disappeared, normal menstrual recovery, and adverse effects were collected and analyzed to compare the two approaches.

Results: The successful rate (98.06%) in the HIFU group was higher than that (91.80%) in the contrast group. The median ablation time was 39 min and the median HIFU sonication time was 106.6 s. The median volume of intraoperative blood loss in the HIFU group was lower than that in the contrast group (P < 0.001), and the median time of gestational sac disappeared in the HIFU group was shorter than that in the contrast group. There were no statistically significant differences in the time of serum β-hCG returned to normal and days of menstrual recovery between the 2 groups.

Conclusion: Based on our results, it appears that HIFU ablation is a safe and effective modality as pre-treatment before hysteroscopy in the management of CSP.

Keywords: Cesarean section; High-intensity focused ultrasound; Hysteroscopy.