Status and treatment of patients with uterine fibroids in hospitals in central China: a retrospective study from 2018 to 2021

Objective To evaluate the hospitalised patients with uterine fibroids (UFs) and describe treatment patterns in hospital-treated patients in central China from 2018 to 2021.Design A retrospective analysis.Setting The gynaecology departments of class A and class B secondary and tertiary hospitals in Hubei Province, China.Participants 101 008 patients diagnosed with UFs from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2021.Results The hospitalised patients with UFs increased with age, reaching a peak at ages 45-49 years and then gradually decreasing. Among these patients, 19.05% had anaemia symptoms. Women aged 25-29 years were more likely to be treated with laparoscopic myomectomy (62.22%), while women aged 20-24 years tend to choose open myomectomy (34.58%). Women over age 45 years who had entered perimenopause tended to be treated with laparoscopic hysterectomy (64.85% for those aged 65-69 years). Patients with fibroid with moderate-to-severe anaemia mostly chose hysterectomy. As a whole, the proportion of patients who chose laparoscopic hysterectomy was similar to that of patients who chose laparoscopic myomectomy (31.38% vs 31.14%). Only 2.08% of UFs were treated with high-frequency MRI-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS). The number of patients who choose laparoscopic surgery or MRgFUS treatment was increasing year by year. After stratifying by hospital grade, we found that women treated at class A tertiary hospitals were more likely to have laparoscopic than open surgery (66.12% vs 31.26%). At class B secondary hospitals, 61.9% of the patients underwent myomectomy. By contrast, hysterectomy was used to treat the majority of patients at class A secondary hospitals and class B tertiary hospitals (57.79% and 57.57%, respectively). Use of MRgFUS was mainly concentrated within class A tertiary hospitals.Conclusion UFs affect mainly women in childbearing period. Most patients chose to receive treatment at class A tertiary hospitals, among which laparoscopic myomectomy was the mainstream surgical method for patients in Hubei Province.Trial registration number NCT05840042.