A medical-legal review of power morcellation in the face of the recent FDA warning and litigation (23 January 2015)

Summary

This article in the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynaecology provides an interpretation of the 2014 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) statement on power morcellation, a gynaecological procedure in which a device is used to slice up fibroid tissue for extraction through small incisions. Although use of power morcellation makes surgery less invasive, it has been shown to spread cancer if it exists within the patient's tissues. This article looks at the legal impact of the FDA statement, which warns against using laparoscopic power morcellators in the majority of women undergoing hysterectomy or myomectomy for uterine fibroids.