Objective: There is little prospective experience in the conservative treatment of placenta percreta during the first trimester in order to preserve uterine fertility. We describe herein our experience with uterine artery embolization (UAE) in the management of placenta percreta at 9 weeks of gestation.
Case report: A 36-year-old woman, gravida 3, para 1, was referred for ultrasonographic evaluation because of suspected molar pregnancy due to persistent vaginal spotting at 9 weeks of gestation. A Grade 3+ lacunar flow pattern with multiple bizarre and large irregular sonolucent spaces were observed. Color Doppler imaging revealed extensive turbulent lacunar blood flow perfusing throughout the whole surrounding uteroplacental tissues and fetus. The patient was informed of the situation and she had a strong desire to avoid surgery. Conservative management with bilateral UAE was performed using polyvinyl alcohol particles to promote involution and shedding of the abnormally adherent placenta. However, an unsatisfactory vessel-occluding effect caused by extensive collateral supply was still detected after repeated UAE. We, therefore, performed hysterectomy, and the patient had an uneventful postoperative course.
Conclusion: The efficacy and complications of UAE as a therapeutic modality for the conservative management of invasive placentation in the first trimester of pregnancy are not clear, as this is the first report of its kind. However, although UAE had failed in this case, it may still be a useful procedure as a prophylactic measure before surgical intervention, and hysterectomy can also be performed for better control of operative hemorrhage.