Patient 4 is a 41 year-old woman with a very large fibroid. She had been offered hysterectomy, but did not want surgery. The images below show the blood supply before and after embolization. (Unlike the pictures above, these were taken during the delivery of dye directly into the uterine artery. That's why blood vessels to the legs and other parts of the pelvis don't show up.)

	a) The fibroid extends out of the pelvis, as shown by the white streaks of blood-borne X-ray dye reaching to the top of the picture. This fibroid was well over 15 inches in diameter.

	b) a very magnified image after embolization shows a tiny amount of blood flow left in the very enlarged uterine artery after embolization. The white triangle is X-ray dye in the urinary bladder.