(Press-News.org) Among women undergoing a minimally invasive hysterectomy using electric power morcellation, uterine cancers were present in 27 per 10,000 women at the time of the procedure, according to a study published by JAMA. There has been concern that this procedure, in which the uterus is fragmented into smaller pieces, may result in the spread of undetected malignancies.
Despite the commercial availability of electric power morcellators for 2 decades, accurate estimates of the prevalence of malignancy at the time of electric power morcellation (in this study referred to as morcellation) have been lacking, according to background information in the article.
Jason D. Wright, M.D., of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and colleagues used a large insurance database to investigate the prevalence of underlying cancer in women who underwent uterine morcellation. The database includes more than 500 hospitals capturing 15 percent of hospitalizations.
The researchers identified 232,882 women who underwent minimally invasive hysterectomy from 2006-2012; morcellation was performed in 36,470 (15.7 percent). Among those who underwent morcellation, 99 cases of uterine cancer were identified at the time of the procedure, a prevalence of 27/10,000. Other malignancies and precancerous abnormalities were also detected. Among women who underwent morcellation, advanced age was associated with underlying cancer and endometrial hyperplasia (a condition characterized by overgrowth of the lining of the uterus).
"Although morcellators have been in use since 1993, few studies have described the prevalence of unexpected pathology at the time of hysterectomy. Prevalence information is the first step in determining the risk of spreading cancer with morcellation," the authors write. "Patients considering morcellation should be adequately counseled about the prevalence of cancerous and precancerous conditions prior to undergoing the procedure."
INFORMATION:
doi:10.1001/jama.2014.9005
Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
Study examines presence of uterine cancers at the time of hysterectomy using morcellation
2014-07-22
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
The 92 percent clean plate club
2014-07-22
If you're a member of the Clean Plate Club – you eat pretty much everything you put on your plate – you're not alone! A new Cornell University study shows that the average adult eats 92% of whatever he or she puts on his or her plate. "If you put it on your plate, it's going into your stomach," says Brian Wansink Ph.D., author of the forthcoming book, Slim by Design, Professor of Marketing and Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.
Wansink and co-author Katherine Abowd Johnson analyzed 1179 diners and concluded that we're a Clean Plate Planet. Although diners ...
Essays in English yield information about other languages
2014-07-22
Computer scientists at MIT and Israel's Technion have discovered an unexpected source of information about the world's languages: the habits of native speakers of those languages when writing in English.
The work could enable computers chewing through relatively accessible documents to approximate data that might take trained linguists months in the field to collect. But that data could in turn lead to better computational tools.
"These [linguistic] features that our system is learning are of course, on one hand, of nice theoretical interest for linguists," says Boris ...
NASA's Fermi finds a 'Transformer' pulsar
2014-07-22
VIDEO:
Zoom into an artist's rendering of AY Sextantis, a binary star system whose pulsar switched from radio emissions to high-energy gamma rays in 2013. This transition likely means the pulsar's...
Click here for more information.
In late June 2013, an exceptional binary containing a rapidly spinning neutron star underwent a dramatic change in behavior never before observed. The pulsar's radio beacon vanished, while at the same time the system brightened fivefold in gamma rays, ...
Forty-five percent rise in diagnostic imaging tests by GPs -- new study
2014-07-22
A 45 per cent rise in diagnostic imaging tests ordered by Australian GPs is being driven by increasing GP visits, a rising number of problems managed at consultations and a higher likelihood that GPs order imaging tests for these problems, according to a new University of Sydney study released today.
Based on a long term national survey of 9,802 GPs between 2002 and 2012, the report draws on data from more than 980,000 GP-patient encounter records to assess the extent to which GP's order tests in line with diagnostic imaging guidelines.
"Most imaging tests ordered by ...
Gene variant identified as a heart disease risk factor for women
2014-07-22
When it comes to heart disease, Dr. Ross Feldman says women are often in the dark. Historically, it was thought that heart disease was a men's-only disease, however, data has shown that post-menopausal women are just as likely as men to get heart disease and are less likely to be adequately diagnosed and treated. New research from Western University published online this week in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology brings to light a genetic basis for heart disease in women and helps to identify which women are more prone to heart disease.
The study, led by Dr. ...
Researchers create vaccine for dust-mite allergies
2014-07-22
If you're allergic to dust mites (and chances are you are), help may be on the way.
Researchers at the University of Iowa have developed a vaccine that can combat dust-mite allergies by naturally switching the body's immune response. In animal tests, the nano-sized vaccine package lowered lung inflammation by 83 percent despite repeated exposure to the allergens, according to the paper, published in the AAPS (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists) Journal. One big reason why it works, the researchers contend, is because the vaccine package contains a booster ...
Activity level may predict orthopedic outcomes
2014-07-22
According to a literature review in the July issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS), patients' activity level is a strong predictor for how well they will do with certain treatments and how well they recover from injuries after treatment. Patients are encouraged to ask their orthopaedic surgeon if activity level is an important factor in their treatment decision. For example, more active patients are at a higher risk of re-injury after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, and activity level should be considered when deciding ...
UI study finds potential genetic link between epilepsy and neurodegenerative disorders
2014-07-22
A recent scientific discovery showed that mutations in prickle genes cause epilepsy, which in humans is a brain disorder characterized by repeated seizures over time. However, the mechanism responsible for generating prickle-associated seizures was unknown.
A new University of Iowa study, published online July 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals a novel pathway in the pathophysiology of epilepsy. UI researchers have identified the basic cellular mechanism that goes awry in prickle mutant flies, leading to the epilepsy-like seizures.
"This ...
Death of a parent during childhood is associated with greater mortality in early adulthood
2014-07-22
Experiencing the loss of a parent during childhood or adolescence is associated with a greater risk of mortality, according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The study, conducted by Jiong Li and colleagues from Aarhus University in Denmark, finds that individuals who lost either a mother or a father during childhood had a greater risk of mortality in the years following the parent's death compared with people unaffected by parental death during childhood.
The researchers reached these conclusions combining data from national registries from all children ...
Distinctive developmental origin for a drainage tube in the eye
2014-07-22
A Jackson Laboratory based research team has conducted a comprehensive exploration of an eye structure known as Schlemm's canal: a key gatekeeper for the proper flow of eye fluid, presenting a number of insights relevant to glaucoma and other diseases.
For the study publishing July 22 in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology, the researchers at JAX and Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston developed a new, "whole-mount," three-dimensional approach to analyse mouse models that have been engineered to host fluorescent proteins, to determine how Schlemm's canal forms ...