It requires a recovery time of only 2 to 4 days. Myolysis has similar parameters to the endometrial ablation. Conversion of abdominal hysterectomy to alternative procedures potentially could save 4 to 6 weeks of recovery time and 2 to 4 hospital days per patient. If these alternative procedures could be performed for all 487,500 patients currently being treated with abdominal hysterectomy, this would amount to almost 2 million hospital days saved per year. A goal of healthcare reform should be to convert as many abdominal procedures as possible to the alternatives to obtain as much of the savings as possible both in patient recovery and in hospital days.
Endometrial ablation can frequently replace hysterectomy for the treatment of bleeding disorders.
This procedure takes 30 minutes to 1 hour to perform, requires only a few hours of observation in an outpatient setting postoperatively, and has a very short recovery time for the patient. In order to ensure that patients are satisfied with the results of the procedure, however, it is important that the ablation be performed thoroughly. In order to ensure this uniform destruction of the endometrium, GnRH agonists are used for pretreatment for a period of one to three months. GnRH agonists prepare the endometrium by uniformly reducing thickness, decreasing edema, and avoiding pseudodecidual reaction usually present with other hormonal treatment. It has been shown that uterine fibroids contain estrogen receptors and are responsive to hormonal manipulation.