Salinas, CA Hospitals Banning Hysterectomy Tool Which Can Spread Cancer

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has already warned against using the gynecological surgical tool called the laparoscopic power morcelator.  Evidence continues to mount about the lack of safety of the tool (which can spread cancer to other parts of the body), raising questions as to how many women have had their conditions worsen because they went under the knife with this medical device.  The University of Michigan recently released a report which was published in the Journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.  It found that women who had hysterectomies for uterine growth fibroids had significantly higher risk of having the cancer spread if the tool was used than if they didn’t.  This backed up the FDA study and another one which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology which found that the tool was more harmful on women that had hysterectomies than on those which only had the fibroids removed.  Although the FDA did not require a ban on the device, many hospitals have stopped using them and the top manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, is no longer making them.