Reliability of ultrasound in predicting uterine leiomyoma volume.

Recently ultrasound has been used to size and track individual myoma volumes for patients undergoing medical therapy. However, little is known about the specific performance characteristics and limitations of this technique with respect to volume measurements. We performed and prospectively interpreted serial ultrasound examinations on myoma patients and confirmed the location, size and number of myomas in the surgical specimens. The smallest detectable tumor was 2.7 cm in diameter. The specificity was 94%; reproducibility had a 14% coefficient of variation for tumors with diameters greater than 6 cm. We conclude that ultrasound is suitable for imaging and sizing myomas provided that the diagnosis is otherwise certain and the tumors tracked are large.

Sterilization reversals performed by fellows in training: what success rates can we reasonably expect?

To assess outcomes of sterilization reversal procedures performed by fellows in training, we retrospectively analyzed 44 women who had undergone this procedure at a large teaching institution. All women studied had been followed postoperatively for a minimum of 12 months. Sixty-five percent of patients became pregnant. Fifty-four percent of patients successfully delivered a term infant. Compared to results tallied by experienced microsurgeons, no significant differences in outcomes were noted. We conclude that clinically inexperienced microsurgeons can obtain reasonable success rates for sterilization reversal procedures by carefully following established microsurgical principles.