Power morcellation is sometimes used during minimally invasive  hysterectomies or myomectomies, but the device has raised concerns in recent years with its link to uterine cancer.

Power morcellation has been in use across the United States since it was initially approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1991.

Power morcellation is used druing a laparosccopic surgical procedure for hysterectomy or fibroid removal that cuts unwanted uterine tissue or fibroids into smaller, easier pieces to remove through a small surgical incision.

However, this process may cause women to develop serious or even life-threatening morcellator side effects. Reports suggest that power morcellator devices, in cutting up uterine fibroids, may put patients at a risk for more rapid growth of uterine cancer.

This can happen if a patient undergoing hysterectomy or myomectomy surgery already has hidden uterine cancer that they do not know about. Power morcellation, while cutting up uterine fibroids, may spread those fibroid tissues into tiny, cancerous pieces that can spread throughout the body spread uterine cancer.

There is no evidence that power morcellation actually causes uterine cancer. Instead, patients who already have uterine cancer that undergo the power morcellation process may develop uterine cancer much more rapidly than they otherwise would have when their latent cancer is spread. This can increase a patient’s risk, because the cancer may become more serious very quickly.

In April 2014, the FDA released a safety alert about the use of power morcellation. The statement acknowledged that power morcellation to remove fibroids in the uterus could potentially spread cancer cells previously undetected by the doctor, placing patients at a more serious risk.

The FDA reports that about 1 in 350 women who go through power morcellation surgery have this dangerous, undetected uterine cancer.

Surgical procedures that often use a laparoscopic power morcellator include the following:

• Robotic hysterectomy
• Morcellation hysterectomy
• Laparoscopic hysterectomy
• Fibroid removal surgery
• Myomectomy

Other power morcellation side effects include noncancerous fibroids causing prolonged menstrual bleeding or pelvic pain.

Power Morcellation Lawsuits

Some of the women who have been diagnosed with uterine cancer after undergoing power morcellation during a surgery such as a hysterectomy or myomectomy claim that their cancer would not have been so serious had a power morcellator not been used.

Though the lawsuits do not suggest that power morcellation actually caused the cancer, they do claim that the plaintiffs would have not have agreed to the procedure. Instead, the plaintiffs claim that they would have chosen an alternative surgical method and thus avoided the extent of the cancer had they been adequately warned of these risks.

Essentially, these lawsuits allege that the malignant uterine cancer tissue was spread and worsened because of power morcellation, ultimately worsening a patient’s chance of treatment survival.

Power morcellator lawsuits claim that morcellator manufacturers, including Ethicon, either knew or should have known about this serious and even life-threatening risk associated with their device.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with cancer after a hysterectomy or myomectomy fibroid surgery using a power morcellator, you may be able to file a morcellation lawsuit.