The use of a morcellator device has been linked with a dangerously heightened risk of cancer after uterine surgery.

A growing number of morcellator lawsuits allege that patients may face a larger risk of cancer after uterine surgery performed with a morcellator device.

Common uterine surgeries include hysterectomies and myomectomies.

What is a Morcellator Device?

Power morcellation, performed with a morcellator device, was first approved as a tool for hysterectomy surgery in 1991 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Morcellation is considered a minimally invasive procedure used to remove uterine tissue.

Morcellator devices have become popular due to their ability to cut unwanted uterine tissue into smaller pieces that are more easily removed, requiring a less invasive surgical opening.

However, despite the common usage of morcellator devices across the country, these devices have been associated with an increased risk of diagnosis with cancer after uterine surgery.

Indeed, the very same aspect of morcellator surgery that makes it so popular—the ability to cut uterine tissue into tiny pieces—may make it easier for uterine cancer to spread throughout a surgical patient’s body, which can ultimately damage their prognosis.

It should be noted that morcellator devices have not been linked with actually causing cancer.

Instead, morcellation may put a patient with undetected uterine cancer at greater risk, making it easier and faster for their cancer to spread before diagnosis.

This can make a patient’s cancer more dangerous, as it becomes less treatable and more severe as the disease progresses.

The FDA’s Response to Morcellator Cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is aware of the reports of the risks of spreading cancer after uterine surgery.

In April 2014, the agency released a safety alert about cancer after uterine surgery from morcellation. The statement warns that power morcellation can spread cancer cells thus far undetected by a doctor, which can place patients at a much more severe risk.

The risk of having undetected uterine cancer is not as uncommon as one might think. According to the FDA, around 1 in 350 women who undergo power morcellation surgery may have this undetected uterine cancer and be at risk of speeding the growth of their cancer up.

Filing a Morcellator Lawsuit

A growing number of the women who have been diagnosed with uterine cancer after uterine surgery with a morcellator claim in complaints and lawsuits that their cancer growth would not have been so rapid, and therefore so dangerous, had a power morcellator not been used in the surgery.

Lawsuit 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.

Plaintiffs claim that, had they been warned of the risks, they would have instead chosen an alternative method of surgery, thus avoiding the rapid spread of cancer after uterine surgery from morcellation.

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 love has been diagnosed with uterine cancer from morcellation, you may be able to file a morcellation lawsuit.