Knowledge is Power: Laparoscopic Hysterectomy Dangers

I just read an article on the dangers that can be associated with a less invasive hysterectomy technique and thought that it was important to share. Although there are pros and cons with all important decisions in life, it’s still necessary to know the dangers that you can face either way.

At least 11% of the 500,000 hysterectomies performed every year are now done through a tiny incision in the belly button. This cuts the healing time down drastically, from 4 to 6 weeks to 5 days. For this less-intrusive surgery, surgeons use a Morcellation technique, literally pulverizing the uterus (or growths) to be able to remove the tissue through the small incision.  

Although this surgery is a miracle for most women who need the procedure done, for small percentage of others it can become a fatal decision. How the surgery is currently performed, the morcellation also pulverizes any cancerous growths and cells that may be in the area and allows them to spread throughout the abdomen.

This is what happened to Amy Reed, a Boston doctor who had a laparoscopic hysterectomy to end bleeding from fibroids (benign growths on her uterus). She had tested negative for cancer before the procedure, but the form that was residing in her uterus was rare and didn’t appear on the tests. The morcellation spread the cancer throughout her body and she now has stage 4 cancer, with an 85% chance of death within the next 5 years. About 1 in every 400 surgeries have had a similar outcome.

Now, the point of the article and public awareness wasn’t to turn women away from this form of surgery. The real point is that the medical field can remove this risk by changing their techniques. A surgical bag can be put in place, at the start of the surgery, so that all of the cells pulverized in the morcellation process stay restricted within it, which is then removed through the incision in the belly button.

The reason why there’s any hesitation in this small technique alteration is that the hospital staff then needs more training and the procedure then becomes more costly. Amy Reed and her husband have created Change.org petition demanding that hospitals stop their current process until a better method can be implemented.