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Morcellation Media Monitoring 03/03/2016
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Power Morcellator Cases Transferred to Kansas
Mar 1, 2016 | Press Release
By Searcy Denney
Power morcellators are electric surgical devices used to cut tissue that have been used in recent years as an alternative to traditional, abdominal surgical hysterectomies, laparotomies and myomectomies. -
Wisconsin Woman Claims Power Morcellator Spread Uterine Cancer
Mar 1, 2016 | Top Class Actions
By Ashley Vanover
A recent power morcellator lawsuit was filed in a Wisconsin federal court against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Ethicon, alleging that a Gynecare power morcellator caused undiagnosed leiomyosarcoma, a deadly aggressive form of uterine cancer, to spread throughout the plaintiff’s body.
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Power Morcellator Cases Transferred to Kansas
Mar 1, 2016 | Press Release
By Searcy Denney
Power morcellators are electric surgical devices used to cut tissue that have been used in recent years as an alternative to traditional, abdominal surgical hysterectomies, laparotomies and myomectomies.
In April 2014, the Food and Drug Administration discouraged the use of power morcellation during hysterectomy or myomectomy to treat women with uterine fibroids.
Over 25 federal lawsuits were filed against the makers of power morcellators. According to the Plaintiffs, as far back as the early 1990’s, the manufacturers of the power morcellators knew that tissue fragments created by the morcellation process are frequently left in the abdominal and the pelvic cavity and can become implanted in surrounding tissue or organs, which causes cancer in those organs.
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Plaintiffs filed a petition to create a Multidistrict Litigation. Plaintiffs contended that besides the power morcellator lawsuits pending in federal courts around the country, numerous additional claims are expected or have already been filed in several state court venues. The manufacturer of the devices opposed centralization. They argued that unique factual questions regarding plaintiffs will overshadow any common question of fact.
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (“JPML”) granted Plaintiffs’ request for the creation of a MDL concerning lawsuits alleging a link between the use of the power morcellators and the spread of cancer, to the District of Kansas. The JPML disagreed with the defendants, stating that while the lawsuits may present individual factual issues, “these actions involve common factual questions surrounding the design, testing, manufacture, and marketing of Ethicon’s power morcellor, including the warning accompanying those devices and whether they should have included a bag to contain tissue.”
In an October 15, 2015, Order, the JPML appointed Judge Kathryn H. Vratil, to oversee the coordinated proceedings. According to the Order, lawsuits concerning the power morcellators against Ethicon, Inc., Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Karl Stortz Endoscopy- America Inc. and Richard Wolf Medical Instruments Corp., were transferred to Kansas City.
The JPML found the lawsuits involve common questions of fact, and that centralization “will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of the litigation.” In addition, “centralization will eliminate duplicate discovery, avoid inconsistent pretrial rulings, and conserve the resources of the parties, their counsel and the judiciary,” the JPML determined.
The Order set forth:
“These actions all involve common factual questions arising from the allegations that (1) defects in the design of Ethicon’s power morcellators made laproscopic hysterectomy or myomectomy procedures more likely to result in the dissemination and upstaging of occult cancer or other conditions, and (2) Ethicon failed to warn patients adequately of these risks given the FDA’s recent communication discouraging the use of power morcellation for treatment of uterine fibroids and revising the risk that uterine fibroids were actually sarcoma.”
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Wisconsin Woman Claims Power Morcellator Spread Uterine Cancer
Mar 1, 2016 | Top Class Actions
By Ashley Vanover
A recent power morcellator lawsuit was filed in a Wisconsin federal court against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Ethicon, alleging that a Gynecare power morcellator caused undiagnosed leiomyosarcoma, a deadly aggressive form of uterine cancer, to spread throughout the plaintiff’s body.
Plaintiff Babette D. underwent a routine laparoscopic hysterectomy in November 2008 performed using a Gynecare power morcellator device. Through a small cut in her abdomen doctors were able to use the power morcellator to masticate the necessary organs and extract the tissue.
Babette’s power morcellator lawsuit alleges that Ethicon did not provide sufficient warning of the cancer risks associated with use of a power morcellator. In the case of unknown cancerous tumors, like leiomyosarcoma, morcellation allows small numbers of hidden cancer cells to spread rapidly throughout her body.
Following her leiomyosarcoma diagnosis, Ms. Davis was prescribed chemotherapy. However, despite these efforts, in April 2009 large masses were found in her abdomen and pelvis.
Babette was forced to undergo additional chemotherapy and now continues to take harsh oral chemotherapy medication.
Leiomyosarcoma Cancer
Leiomyosarcoma is a cancer of smooth muscle cells that can occur in the uterus, stomach and intestines, walls of all blood vessels, and skin. While this cancer is very rare, there is no reliable test to diagnose potential malignancy in uterine fibroids before a woman undergoes morcellation. If the cancer is present during morcellation use, the cells can be spread throughout the body, quickly changing a stage 1 cancer into stage 4.
In December 2013, four Boston-area doctors submitted a draft paper to the New England Journal of Medicine calling for a moratorium on morcellation, asserting that a much higher number of women than previously thought have undetected cancer in their fibroids.
The team reviewed 10 studies of 30,000 women who had undergone morcellation, and found that nearly 1 in 400 women were found to have uterine cancer in the removed tissue.
In November 2012, a study published by doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital looked at nearly 1,100 morcellation-aided procedures performed at the facility, and found the rate of uterine sarcoma was 1 in 546. They concluded that the rate of the far-deadlier leiomyosarcoma was nearly 1 in 1,000.
According to the authors of the study, the occurrence of leiomyosarcoma was “much higher than the empiric rate of 1-in-10,000 typically quoted to patients during their pre-procedure briefing.”
Filing a Power Morcellator Lawsuit
Over the past decade, power morcellators have been widely used in both laparoscopic hysterectomy and fibroid removal surgeries. Patients who have developed uterineuterine cancer due to these power morcellator-aided procedures are now filing product liability lawsuits claiming that the manufacturers of power morcellator devices were aware of the cancers risks and failed to warn patients and doctors.
If you or a loved one have undergone a procedure where a power morcellator may have been used and suffered injury, you may be eligible for compensation.
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