OBJECTIVES : Fibroids are benign, often asymptomatic tumors of the uterus. They occur in about 80% of women in the United States by the age of 50, with age and race being important epidemiological risk factors. Apart from medications, treatment options may include surgery based on severity of symptoms. The objective of the present study was to assess said risk factors in fibroid patients and their impact, if any, on surgical rates.

METHODS : This retrospective study examined data from a U.S. electronic health record database (Cerner Health Facts®). All visits, including inpatient (females, age ≥ 18 years), between 2012 and 2016 with a principal ICD9/10 diagnosis of fibroids were included in the analysis. Surgical procedures were identified based on relevant ICD-9 and CPT codes.

RESULTS : The study included 364,384 fibroid-related patient visits. Intramural fibroids were present in 9.3% of visits, while 5.1% had submucosal fibroids. Majority of visits were in the age group of ‘36-65 years’ (81.1%), while 45.7% were Caucasian, closely followed by African-American (38.5%). However, when compared to the total patient visits in the database for each race, African-American women had a higher number of fibroid-related visits as compared to Caucasian women (0.8% vs. 0.2%). As for surgical rates, 15.9% of visits underwent surgery with rates differing slightly across age groups (12.1% in the 18-36 age group, 16.7% in the 36-65 age group, and 14.2% in the >65 age group). From the subset of patients undergoing surgery, 21.2% were Caucasian, followed by Hispanic (13.5%).

CONCLUSIONS : The results of the study show a higher prevalence of fibroid-related visits in African-American women compared to other races. Surgical rates were similar across different age groups, with Caucasian women showing a higher surgical treatment rate as compared to other races.