US regulators have advised doctors to stop using a surgical device used in tens of thousands of hysterectomies each year, citing its potential to spread cancer. [s]The Wall Street Journal[/s] reports that the move by the [b]Food and Drug Administration[/b] could change the way many women are treated for common but often painful growths in the uterus known as symptomatic fibroids, which spur about 40% of the roughly half-million hysterectomies performed annually in the US. The power morcellator typically uses a tube-shaped blade to slice up and remove fibroids or the entire uterus, avoiding the long surgical scars associated with traditional, open surgery. But it can also spread an often undetectable cancer known as a uterine sarcoma, according to the FDA.
[link url=http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304626304579507642833016758?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304626304579507642833016758.html]Full report in The Wall Street Journal[/link]
[link url=http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm393689.htm]FDA announcement[/link]