Uterine Conditions & Treatment

When a woman faces a medical condition that affects her uterus, the hollow, muscular organ that holds and feeds a fertilized egg, the emotional impact can often be as challenging as the physical. These conditions include, but are not limited to, cervical and uterine cancers such as endometrial cancer, uterine fibroids, uterine prolapse, excessive bleeding and endometriosis.

Treatment options are as varied as the conditions themselves, depending on individual circumstances. A woman’s age, health history, surgical history and diagnosis (benign or cancerous), all factor into the recommended course of action.

For endometrial cancer, also known as uterine cancer and more common among women after menopause, standard treatment options include hormone therapy, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and hysterectomy (surgical removal of the uterus). Three of these — radiation therapy, chemotherapy and hysterectomy — are also used to treat cervical cancer.

da Vinci ® Hysterectomy

For most uterine conditions, if available non-surgical treatments fail to relieve symptoms, many women choose a more certain result with elective hysterectomy. Each year in the U.S. alone, doctors perform about 600,000 hysterectomies, making it the second most common surgical procedure. While hysterectomy is relatively safe, always ask your doctor about all treatment options, as well as their risks and benefits, to determine which approach is right for you.

And if hysterectomy is recommended or required, you owe it to yourself to learn about da Vinci Hysterectomy, a robot-assisted, minimally invasive surgery that for many women has potential as the safest and most effective treatment available.

da Vinci Hysterectomy is performed using the da Vinci™ Surgical System, which enables surgeons to perform with unmatched precision and control – using only a few small incisions.

For most patients, da Vinci Hysterectomy can offer numerous potential benefits over traditional approaches to vaginal, laparoscopic or open abdominal hysterectomy, particularly when performing more challenging procedures like radical hysterectomy for gynecologic cancer.

Potential benefits include:

• Significantly less pain
• Less blood loss
• Fewer complications
• Less scarring
• A shorter hospital stay
• A faster return to normal daily activities

In addition, da Vinci provides the surgeon with a superior surgical tool for dissection and removal of lymph nodes during cancer operations, as compared to traditional open or minimally invasive approaches. da Vinci Hysterectomy also allows your Affinity surgeon better visualization of anatomy, which is especially critical when working around delicate and confined structures like the bladder.

This means that surgeons have a distinct advantage when performing a complex, radical hysterectomy involving adhesions from prior pelvic surgery or non-localized cancer, or an abdominal hysterectomy.

As with any surgery, these benefits cannot be guaranteed, as surgery is both patient- and procedure-specific. While radical hysterectomy or abdominal hysterectomy performed using the da Vinci Surgical System are considered safe and effective, these procedures may not be appropriate for every individual.

Always ask your doctor about all treatment options, as well as their risks and benefits.

Fibroids & Treatment Options

Uterine fibroids are benign (non-cancerous) tumors occurring in at least one quarter of all women. They can grow underneath the uterine lining, inside the uterine wall, or outside the uterus.

Many women don’t feel any symptoms with uterine tumors or fibroids. But for others, these fibroids can cause excessive menstrual bleeding (also called menorrhagia), abnormal periods, uterine bleeding, pain, discomfort, frequent urination and infertility.

Treatments include uterine fibroid embolization – which shrinks the tumor – and surgery. Surgical treatment for uterine tumors most often involves the surgeon removing the entire uterus, via hysterectomy.

While hysterectomy is a proven way to resolve fibroids, it may not be the best surgical treatment for every woman. If, for example, you hope to later become pregnant, you may want to consider alternatives to hysterectomy like myomectomy, which is a uterine-preserving procedure performed to remove uterine fibroids.

da Vinci® Myomectomy

A new category of minimally invasive myomectomy, da Vinci® Myomectomy, combines the best of open and laparoscopic surgery. With the assistance of the da Vinci Surgical System – the latest evolution in robotics technology – surgeons may remove uterine fibroids through small incisions with unmatched precision and control.

The conventional approach to myomectomy is open surgery through a large abdominal incision. After cutting around and removing each uterine fibroid, the surgeon must carefully repair the uterine wall to minimize potential uterine bleeding, infection and scarring. Proper repair is also critical to reducing the risk of uterine rupture during future pregnancies.

If you would like to explore whether you are a candidate for myomectomy, ask your Affinity physician. While clinical studies support the effectiveness of the da Vinci® System when used in minimally invasive surgery, individual results may vary. Surgery with the da Vinci Surgical System may not be appropriate for every individual. Always ask your doctor about all treatment options, as well as their risks and benefits.