Laparoscopic surgery is one of those surgical procedures that make it seem like the future has finally arrived. In laparoscopic surgery, surgeons use tiny tools inside a patient’s body, requiring smaller incisions than traditional surgery, which can reduce recovery time and improve outcomes. However, a new laparoscopic surgery lawsuit alleges that some laparoscopic methods may have special risks of its own.

Morcellation is a procedure used in some laparoscopic surgeries. In morcellation, a specialized type of tool called a morcellator is used to cut up tissue. For example, in a hysterectomy, the uterus is surgically removed from the body. If the hysterectomy is performed by laparoscopic surgery, morcellation can be used to cut the organ into pieces small enough to extract through the small incisions used in laparoscopic surgery. However, allegations have come to light that under some circumstances, this procedure may encourage the spread of cancer.

If a uterus has an early-stage cancer, and morcellation is performed, the procedure may make it easier for cancer cells to spread within a patient’s body. Since laparoscopic surgery is performed within the patient’s body, the act of morcellation can “liberate” cancer cells and spread them within a patient’s body.

Scott Burkhart has filed the latest morcellation cancer lawsuit on behalf of himself and his deceased wife Donna Burkhart. In March 2012, Mrs. Burkhart underwent a hysterectomy to treat a uterine condition. Less than a year later, in February 2013, Mrs. Burkhart reportedly died from metastatic leiomyosarcoma, a type of cancer.

The morcellation lawsuit states that Burkhart’s legal team is still in the process of identifying the exact manufacturers of the morcellator used in Mrs. Burkhart’s surgery. It names several known vendors to the hospital where the procedure was performed.

Mr. Burkhart’s morcellation lawsuit makes the case that even though morcellation is a common procedure, that does not make it appropriate. The text of the morcellation cancer lawsuit argues that a standard of care should not mean that “because a bunch of doctors are doing the wrong thing, it’s OK to do the wrong thing.” The fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently issued an urgent safety communication to warn of this risk may bolster such claims.

At present, Mr. Burkhart’s case is a single individual morcellation lawsuit. However, morcellation is a widespread procedure. This could mean that additional lawsuits may join together into a sort of group lawsuit called a multidistrict litigation (MDL) or mass tort. MDLs are a type of group litigation, similar in some ways to the more familiar class action lawsuit. Both MDLs and class action lawsuits are designed to help streamline the legal system by combining dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual suits into a single legal procedure. The main difference is that class action lawsuits start out as group lawsuits, while MDLs typically start out as individual cases, like Mr. Burkhart’s morcellation cancer lawsuit, which are later combined into a single MDL.