Intra-amniotic and systemic administration of methotrexate with concomitant surgical evacuation of 11 + 5 weeks cervical ectopic pregnancy: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Cervical pregnancy is a rare type of ectopic pregnancy. The management of cervical pregnancy is challenging because of the rarity of the condition, late presentation, which is associated with increased risk of failed medical treatment, and excessive post-evacuation bleeding that may require hysterectomy. There is no good evidence in the literature regarding the pharmacological management of living cervical ectopic pregnancy of more than 9 + 0 weeks of gestation, and there is no standard protocol on methotrexate doses in these cases. CASE PRESENTATION: We present this case to describe a concomitant medical and surgical management of a living 11 + 5 weeks cervical pregnancy. The initial beta-human chorionic gonadotropins (ß-hCG) serum level was 108,730 IU/L. The patient received 60 mg of methotrexate intra-amniotically followed by another dose of 60 mg of methotrexate intramuscularly 24 h later. Fetal heartbeats stopped on day 03. On day 07, the ß-hCG was 37,397 IU/L. On day 13, the patient had evacuation of the remaining products of conception with the insertion of an intracervical Foley catheter to minimize the bleeding. On day 34, the ß-hCG was negative. CONCLUSION: The concomitant use of methotrexate to induce fetal demise along with surgical evacuation may be considered in the management of advanced cervical pregnancy to avoid excessive blood loss, and ultimately hysterectomy.

Re-intervention and patient satisfaction rates following office radiofrequency endometrial ablation: a comparative retrospective study of 408 cases.

This retrospective study assessed the efficacy and long-term satisfaction of radiofrequency endometrial ablation outside the context of clinical trials in 408 women, and compared the outcome between office-setting (211, 52%) and day-case procedures under general anaesthetics (197, 48%). The Kaplan Meir time-to-event analysis showed that the cumulative number of women undergoing surgical re-intervention was 32 with a probability of 9.4% (95% CI: 6.3 - 12.5%) at 2-years, and 45 with a probability of 14.5% (95% CI: 10.3 - 18.2%) at 5-years. There was no statistically significant difference in the re-intervention rate between office and day-case groups (HR = 0.7, 95% CI: 0.68 - 3.1, p = .3). The satisfaction rate, measured by Visual Analogue Scale, was not statistically different (p = .5) between office (109; 80.7%) and day-case (96; 82.8%) groups. This study showed lower surgical re-intervention rate than previously reported in observational studies, and high rates of long-term women satisfaction. The outcomes were similar in office and day-case settings.Impact statementWhat is already known on this subject? Previous studies have shown the safety and effectiveness of radiofrequency endometrial ablation for treating heavy periods. However, studies investigating it, outside clinical trials, either included a small sample size, a short-term follow-up, poor reporting so that it is impossible to judge whether some women underwent re-intervention in another centre, failed to discriminate in analysis between second-generation techniques, or assessed only short-term satisfaction.What do the results of this study add? This is the largest series reported from a single centre and the first study reporting long-term satisfaction in women, outside clinical trials. Surgical re-intervention was used as the primary outcome measure which is an objective measure rather than the change in the monthly flow which is rather subjective. More importantly, the study records the similarity, in the outcome and women's satisfaction rate, between office and day-case procedures under general anaesthetics.What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Endometrial ablation service is widely implemented in office-setting in the UK. We hope the result of this study encourages implementation on a larger scale in office across centres in the world with its multiple advantages both to women and service alike.

Office hysteroscopic morcellation service: Evaluation of women experience and factors affecting satisfaction.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the hysteroscopic morcellation service in office-setting in everyday practice outside the context of clinical trials. The primary objectives were to assess level of acceptability and factors affecting women satisfaction. The secondary objectives included assessment of complete resection rate, complications rate, pain score during the procedure and on discharge, and the correlation between the lesion size as subjectively estimated by the hysteroscopists versus the volume of morcellated tissues as semi-quantitively measured by the laboratory. METHOD: The clinical data was compiled for 287 consecutive women undergoing hysteroscopic morcellation in office-setting from 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2021 in a teaching hospital in the UK. A questionnaire, formulated on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), was completed immediately after the procedure by the last 110 women undergoing the procedure. RESULTS: The mean age of the cohort (n = 278) was 54.5 years (SD ± 12.5). Only 7 (2.4%) women required two-stage procedure because of size (fibroid ≥ 4 cm), vascularity or multiplicity of lesions. No complications were encountered. The majority of women completing the questionnaire (n = 110) found office procedure acceptable (105, 95.5%, VAS ≥ 7), were willing to have it again if indicated (102, 92.7%, VAS ≥ 7), would recommend it to family and friends (105, 95.5%, VAS ≥ 7) and confirmed receiving adequate preoperative information by doctors and nurses (107, 97.3%, VAS ≥ 7). The level of preoperative explanation and information-giving showed significant (p < 0.01) positive correlation with the level of acceptability and recommendation to others and significant (p = .007) negative correlation with the pain experienced on discharge. The median (IQR) estimated size at hysteroscopy was 2 cm (1-6 cm) for polyps and 2.5 cm (1-4 cm) for fibroid. The median (IQR) volume of the morcellated specimens as estimated by laboratory was 2000 mm3 (1100-3800 mm3). The estimated size at hysteroscopy was positively correlated with the specimen's volume (Spearman's rho (r) = 0.31, 95% = CI, 0.14-0.45, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Office hysteroscopic morcellation is associated with high satisfaction rate and low pain score on discharge. Good preoperative explanation and information-giving was the crucial factor that increased women satisfaction. Subjective estimation of lesion size by hysteroscopists may be an accurate and simple method of measurement.

Thickened endometrium in asymptomatic postmenopausal women - determining an optimum threshold for prediction of atypical hyperplasia and cancer.

There is a lack of consensus about the significance and the management of an incidental finding of endometrial thickness (ET) > 4 mm on transvaginal ultrasound scans in postmenopausal women without postmenopausal bleeding (PMB). The data of 1995 consecutive women attending PMB clinic were collected prospectively; of them 81 (4.1%) were referred because of ET >4 mm without PMB. The prevalence of endometrial atypical hyperplasia and cancer was 4/81 (4.9%), and polyp was 20/81 (24.7%). On using a receiver operator characteristic curve, the diagnosis of endometrial atypical hyperplasia and cancer using the ET threshold of ≥10 mm had a sensitivity of 100% (95% CI = 40-100%), a specificity of 60% (95% CI = 48-71%) with AUC = 0.8 (95% CI = 0.66-0.93), p = .04. For the 35 women with an ET ≥10 mm, the prevalence of endometrial atypical hyperplasia and cancer was 4/35 (11.4%) and benign endometrial polyps was 16/35 (45.7%). The use of ≥10 mm ET threshold to prompt investigations did not miss any case of endometrial atypical hyperplasia or cancer. Impact Statement What is already known on this subject? Unlike women with PMB in whom an endometrial thickness (ET) ≤ 4 mm is considered as low risk for endometrial hyperplasia and cancer, in postmenopausal women without PMB, the threshold that separates normal from a pathologically thickened endometrium has not been standardised. A decision-analysis study in a hypothetical cohort found that ET threshold of 11 mm yields a similar separation as ≤4 mm in those with PMB. What the results of this study add? The study uses prospectively collected data from consecutive patients using a standardised format, thus minimising bias from incomplete data. This study is the third prospective series in the literature to address the dilemma of the management of asymptomatic postmenopausal women with an incidental finding of a thickened endometrium. It showed that the prevalence of endometrial atypical hyperplasia and cancer is high enough to justify investigation and for the clinical problem not to be trivialised. All cases of endometrial atypical hyperplasia and cancer had ET of ≥10 mm. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or future research? Our data strengthen the current body of literature to help the development of clinical practice guidelines about the management work-up. However, a well-designed multi-centre large prospective study is required to confirm the findings since most studies in the literature are either retrospective or small.