A growing number of morcellator manufacturers have been hit with lawsuits over morcellation cancer risks.

These lawsuits allege that devices are associated with serious morcellation cancer risks that can spur along a patient’s cancer.

What is Power Morcellation?

Power morcellators, first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991, are medical devices commonly used during hysterectomy surgeries.

Since their approval in the early 90s, these devices have grown increasingly more common in hysterectomies and myomectomies (uterine fibroid removal surgeries).

Power morcellators are used to make extremely small incisions during these surgeries, which can help surgery go smoothly and reduce recovery time. Unwanted tissue is cut and shred apart by morcellators so that it can be removed in smaller, more manageable pieces.

However, cutting fibroid tissue into small pieces can also cause extreme complications for patients.

Morcellation Cancer Risks

Indeed, this surgical process, designed to improve efficiency and reduce complications, may very well open patients up to serious morcellation cancer risks.

Morcellators have been linked with the increased spread of hidden uterine cancer fibroids, placing patients at greater risk.

While morcellator devices have not been linked with actually causing cancer, they have been associated with allowing cancer tissue to spread more rapidly.

As a morcellator device cuts up uterine fibroids for surgery, it may also cut up and scatter uterine cancer cells that have not yet been detected.

This allows a patient’s undetected cancer to spread farther and more quickly, which can put them at greater risk.

Though morcellators do not cause cancer, if power morcellation gives a patient’s cancer a jumpstart, spreading it throughout the body, that patient’s prognosis can take a drastic nosedive.

In response to reports of morcellation cancer risks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a safety alert in 2014.

The statement warns consumers that power morcellation may place patients with undetected uterine cancer at a more substantial risk.

While this may seem like a fairly unlikely scenario, the risk of patients with undetected uterine cancer undergoing power morcellation is actually fairly significant.

According to the FDA, around 1 in 350 women who undergo surgery with a power morcellator may have undetected uterine cancer.

Morcellation cancer risks are only one of the dangers of these devices. Morcellation can also have serious side effects for patients without cancer. Noncancerous fibroids can be spread throughout the body, causing pelvic pain or prolonged menstrual bleeding.

Power Morcellation Lawsuits

Ethicon and other manufacturers of power morcellation devices have been hit with a growing number of lawsuits regarding morcellation cancer risks

Women who have been diagnosed with uterine cancer following morcellation surgery allege that their cancer growth would not have been so rapid or dangerous had manufacturers properly warned of morcellation cancer risks, and had morcellation been avoided altogether during surgery.

Lawsuits claim that plaintiffs injured by power morcellation would not have agreed to the procedure if they had been properly warned of the risks for those with undetected uterine cancer, and would have instead chosen an alternative method of surgery without a morcellation device.

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with uterine cancer after undergoing morcellation surgery, you may be able to file a morcellation lawsuit against power morcellator manufacturers.