FDA Warns of Cancer Risk With Laparoscopic Device

My understanding is that a surgeon would never morcellate (chop up) any suspicious tissue.  The issue here is that fibroids are very common, and benign, but rarely the patient has a uterine sarcoma masquerading as a fibroid.  There is no way to differentiate between a fibroid and a sarcoma with imaging - it's not until the pathologist has it under a microscope after surgery, and by then it's too late.  The reason that surgeons continue to use morcellation is that uterine sarcoma is quite rare, and by cutting up the fibroid, they can avoid using a larger incision (which has its own complications).  I knew I had a fibroid going into my prophy hist/ooph so I told my surgeon that he was to remove all organs intact - even if that meant an open abdominal incision.  He was able to take everything laparoscopically and in my case, the fibroid was just a fibroid. Myomectomy (removal of only the fibroid - not the uterus) with or without morcellation carries with it the risk of spreading cancer if sarcoma is present, but again this is very rare and the benefits might outweigh the risk (if a woman is not finished having children but fibroids are making her life miserable for example).  My doctors all thought I was being paranoid when I made my pre-op demand of no morcellation.