Objective: To investigate the occurrence and influencing factors of moderate to severe pain in patients with cesarean scar pregnancy (CSP) after uterine artery embolization (UAE).
Methods: Ninety-eight patients with CSP who underwent UAE in gynecology department of the Fujian Medical University Union Hospital from January 2017 to December 2020 were enrolled, and the specialty data in patients were collected for pain assessment with the adoption of the numerical rating scale (NRS).
Results: Moderate to severe pain occurred in 3v6 patients after surgery, and the interquartile of time to the first onset of postoperative pain in patients was 3.04 (1.75, 7.40) hours. The number of pregnancies, number of miscarriages, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) before curettage, duration of medication before UAE, and hemorrhage after UAE were not significantly correlated with the occurrence of moderate to severe pain after UAE (P > 0.05). The volume of gestational sac and days of gestation were responsible for the occurrence of moderate to severe pain after UAE (P < 0.05), with the former being the main influencing factor, and these explained 8.3% of the total variance.
Conclusion: Moderate to severe pain occurred commonly in patients with CSP undergoing UAE. In clinical care of patients with CSP who are going to undergo UAE, data concerning the volume of gestational sac and days of gestation should be considered for anticipatory pain assessment, and interventions should be implemented as early as possible to reduce the pain and improve the experience of care.
Keywords: cesarean scar pregnancy, uterine artery embolization, moderate to severe pain, research