About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
What you can expect
By Mayo Clinic staffTypically, it takes 50 to 80 sonications during a treatment session to destroy the core of a fibroid. However, depending on the size and number of fibroids you have, more sonications or a second treatment may be necessary. As your treatment progresses, the MR images allow doctors to evaluate the effects and define areas that need additional treatment. In the future, improved technology may shorten the length of each treatment and reduce the number of sessions required.
During the procedure
During the procedure, you lie on your stomach on a movable table that slides into the opening of the MR imaging scanner. A technologist makes sure that you're comfortable inside the scanner. He or she leaves the room and monitors you from an adjoining room. You'll be able to talk with him or her by microphone. Because the internal part of the magnet produces repetitive tapping, thumping sounds and other noises, earplugs will be provided to help block your noise perception.
The treatment itself takes about three to four hours, but can vary depending on the size and number of fibroids you have.
Before any ultrasound sonications are delivered, you'll be given medication intravenously to help you relax and relieve possible heat and cramping discomfort. After each sonication, you will be asked about your level of discomfort so that your medication can be adjusted or other necessary changes can be made.
Each sonication lasts approximately 20 seconds. While each portion of the fibroid is heated, MR imaging is used to monitor tissue temperature and determine if the fibroid has been heated enough to achieve the desired results. The process is repeated until most of the fibroid has reached a temperature that should destroy the tissue.
After the procedure
After the procedure, your body naturally absorbs a small portion of the ablated tissue over a period of months. Fibroid-related symptoms usually subside or improve significantly in three to six months.
If you live within a short distance (usually about 40 miles) of the medical facility, you should be able to go home as soon as you've rested for a short time after the procedure. If you're farther from home, you can arrange to stay in town and return home on the following day. You'll need a friend or family member to be with you and drive for the first 24 hours after your treatment, due to the medications you receive during the treatment.
When you get home, you can resume your normal daily activities. Although rare, pain near the treatment area, nausea and skin burns have been reported after focused ultrasound surgery in some cases. Because the procedure is so new, some complications and side effects may still be unknown.
- Hudson SB, et al. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2008;51:159.
- Haney AF. Leiomyomata. In: Gibb RS, et al. Danforth's Obstetrics and Gynecology. 10th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2008:916.
- The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists. Alternatives to hysterectomy in the management of leiomyomas. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2008;112:387.
- Hesley GK, et al. Noninvasive treatment of uterine fibroids: Early Mayo Clinic experience with magnetic resonance imaging-guided focused ultrasound. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2006;81:936.
- Stewart EA, et al. Sustained relief of leiomyoma symptoms by using focused ultrasound surgery. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2007;110:279.
- Stewart EA, et al. Clinical outcomes of focused ultrasound surgery for the treatment of uterine fibroids. Fertility and Sterility. 2006;85:22.
- Fennessy FM, et al. Uterine leiomyomas: MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound surgery - Results of different treatment protocols. Radiology. 2007;243:885.
- Funaki K, et al. Clinical outcomes of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery for uterine myomas: 24-month follow-up. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2009;34:584.
- Rabinovici J, et al. Pregnancy outcome after magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) for conservative treatment of uterine fibroids. Fertility and Sterility. 2010;1:199.
Find Mayo Clinic on