Six federal power morcellator lawsuits filed against Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit have been centralized in a multidistrict litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation held in its October 15 transfer order that the cases all involved common questions of fact, and that centralization would promote more just and efficient litigation.
Laparoscopic power morcellators are a ...
continue reading...A panel of Food and Drug Administration experts says that it is unlikely that power morcellation can be used to remove fibroids from women without the risk of spreading undetected cancers to other parts of the body. The FDA takes into consideration the opinions of its health advisors on these panels when making regulatory decisions about medical devices.
Power morcellators are used in the removal of fibroids and in some hysterectomies. Fibroids can cause ...
continue reading...After much speculation about the risk of spreading cancer with power morcellators, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has assembled information on this risk. The risk was quantified from a review of data from over 200,000 patients.
The medical records review showed that 36,470 women had procedures where the uterus was fragmented using morcellation. Of those, one in every 368 women had an undiagnosed uterine cancer, resulting in 99 patients, or about ...
continue reading...The FDA previously advised doctors to stop all use of power morcellators while the devices’ propensity to spread cancer was reviewed. Now J&J is pursuing a global, voluntary return of its power morcellator devices. An article in Reuters reports that this move comes as a result of concerns that the surgical device potentially spreads cancerous uterine growths in women.
Uterine growths, called fibroids, ...
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A report published in the Pittsburgh Business Times indicates that the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary responsible for manufacturing power morcellators was warned eight years ago that their device could increase the risk of spreading cancer. The news is based on a series of communications between the company and a Pennsylvania pathologist, Dr. Robert Lamparter, who requested that Johnson & Johnson reconsider the ...
A Pennsylvania man is suing the manufacturer of a device used to remove large masses of tissue during minimally invasive surgeries. The man is alleging that the device caused the spread of cancerous tissue during his wife’s hysterectomy, ultimately resulting in her death. The device at issue is known as a morcellator, which operates by breaking up tissue into smaller fragments, allowing a surgeon to remove the tissue through a smaller incision than would be required in standard laparoscopic surgery.
On ...
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