An anesthesiologist and mother of 6 who underwent fibroid removal surgery and developed Stage 4 leiomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of uterine cancer, is raising the alarm over the risks of power morcellation.

Dr. Amy Reed and her husband, a cardiothoracic surgeon, are engaging in a public campaign to warn women and the medical community about the dangerous side effects of laparoscopic power morcellation surgery.

Surgical techniques are not subject to the stringent FDA approval process that drugs go through and, as with drugs, problems with medical device procedures may not become apparent until after they have been used many hundreds or thousands of times.

Such is the case with a popular treatment for a very common medical condition, uterine fibroids. The technique, called power morcellation, has widespread appeal for both surgeons and patients. Power morcellation is used during laparoscopic surgery, requiring only a tiny incision and involving less pain and a quicker recovery than traditional surgery. However, power morcellation can also cause serious and sometimes life-threatening complications, including the spread of uterine cancer.

What is Power Morcellation?

Power morcellation involves the use a spinning power cutter to slice uterine tissue into smaller fragments. Those fragments are then removed through small incisions in the abdomen via a tube or laparoscope. Power morcellation problems, such as uterine sarcoma or other cancers, can arise months or years later if pieces of tissue containing cancer cells escape into the pelvic cavity and seed themselves on other organs.

Although the overwhelming majority of uterine fibroids are benign, there is no certain way to tell before removal if they harbor a cancer, which happens in 1 in 400 to 1 in 1,000 cases.

Studies Warn of Morcellation Cancer Risks

From 1983 through 2010, 13 unexpected uterine sarcomas were reported after uterine fibroid surgery on 5,666 patients. Among 1,192 women who underwent power morcellation surgery, two developed sarcoma that spread within the abdomen.

After reviewing the medical records of more than 1,000 women who underwent power morcellation surgery for uterine fibroids, specialists at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston found a ninefold higher rate of unexpected sarcoma than is now quoted to patients considering the procedure.

“These data suggest uterine morcellation carries a risk of disseminating unexpected malignancy with apparent associated risk of mortality much higher than appreciated currently,” the researchers wrote in the journal PLOS One in 2012.

Even benign uterine tissue, when it is spread to other parts of the abdomen during morcellation, can grow in places it doesn’t belong and cause pain, infection or bowel obstruction.

The FDA has estimated that about one in 350 women undergoing a hysterectomy or fibroid removal surgery has an unsuspected type of cancer called uterine sarcoma. As a result of these studies and an FDA Advisory, many power morcellation device manufacturers, such as Johnson & Johnson, have suspended sales of new power morcellators and many hospitals have banned the use of the devices.

Unfortunately, this all happened too late for thousands of women, like Dr. Amy Reed, who now face an uncertain future.

If you or a loved one developed cancer or passed away after undergoing morcellation surgery, you may be eligible to file a power morcellator lawsuit or a wrongful death lawsuit against the device manufacturer.