Cancer Risks
Fewer women getting minimally invasive hysterectomies since FDA guidelines
A new study adds fuel to an ongoing debate over women’s healthcare: if a surgical procedure associated with dramatically fewer post-operative complications puts some patients at risk for life-threatening cancer, is it worthwhile? Now, a study out of the University of Michigan shows that post-operative complications in hysterectomies grew significantly following that FDA alert. Hospital…
Read MoreHysterectomy Device Will Be Covered by Insurer Despite Danger of Uterine Cancer’s Spread
Health Care Service Corp., the nation’s fourth-largest health insurer, will continue to cover laparoscopic power morcellators after considering a policy that would have curbed the surgical tools used in hysterectomies, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. It is the latest insurer to take a closer look at the device since last year, when the U.S. Food and…
Read MoreFDA warns against using laparoscopic power morcellators to treat uterine fibroids
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking immediate steps to help reduce the risk of spreading unsuspected cancer in women being treated for uterine fibroids. In an updated safety communication, originally issued in April 2014, the FDA warns against using laparoscopic power morcellators in the removal of the uterus (hysterectomy) or fibroids (myomectomy)…
Read MoreA Medical Device is Sidelined, but Too Late for One Woman
Linda Interlichia arrived alone at her family’s Cape Cod vacation home a half-mile from the beach last fall. Her routine there had been unchanged for years: She opened the doors to let the breeze flow in from the marsh and sat on the deck in the afternoon, sipping a glass of Chardonnay. The second night,…
Read MoreDeadly Medicine: A Common Surgery for Women and the Cancer It Leaves Behind
Since the 1990s, thousands of women have undertaken a surgical procedure that may have risked their lives. After Dr. Amy Reed had surgery to remove uterine fibroids, involving a procedure known as power morcellation, she learned that it had worsened her prognosis by spreading a cancer she and her doctors didn’t know she had. Dr.…
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