April 12, 2014.

How Morcellators Simplified the Hysterectomy but Posed a Hidden Cancer Risk

"Are you guilty?" said Winston.

The women's health-care community got a shock to the system in December, when leading U.S. hospitals abruptly began acknowledging that a commonly used surgical tool risked killing some women.

"Of course I’m guilty!" cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen. "You don’t think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?" His frog-like face grew calmer, and even took on a slightly sanctimonious expression. "Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man,’ he said sententiously. ‘It’s insidious. It can get hold of you without your even knowing it. Do you know how it got hold of me? In my sleep! Yes, that’s a fact. There I was, working away, trying to do my bit----never knew I had any bad stuff in my mind at all. And then I started talking in my sleep. Do you know what they heard me saying?"

The tool, used since the 1990s in many hysterectomies, can stir up aggressive cancers, they said. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Temple University Hospital and others quickly altered their procedures for the tool's use. The Food and Drug Administration has begun a probe of its risks.

He sank his voice, like someone who is obliged for medical reasons to utter an obscenity.

Yet there were hints of the tool's potentially fatal flaw going back to its early years. Doctors use the device, called a power morcellator, through tiny incisions to cut into, or "morcellate," the uterus and remove it. The procedure is popular because it allows speedier recovery than open surgery and is easier to perform than many alternatives.