Are surgeons still morcellating fibroids?

Dr. Kim: My name is Renita Kim, and I’m a fourth-year resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Our presentation is on a survey looking at current methods of tissue extraction for surgical treatment of uterine fibroids. This was an international survey of all AAGL members looking at what people are doing now to remove large specimens for laparoscopic or robotic surgery for fibroids.

Big picture-wise, the impact of these findings is that we know there’s been a lot of changes to how people are doing minimally invasive surgery for fibroids, but now we have a little bit more granular data on what exactly people are doing and when and where.

In terms of our results, we were surprised by a few things, but most notably, how many people are still using power morcellation. We found that the trends showed that power morcellation was more likely both in the international setting and also among surgeons who have more advanced years in practice.

In terms of what’s next for our research, we are looking at ways to see how changes in the trends in tissue extraction might affect complication rates. There are also opportunities for the development of new medical devices based on what the current practices are and how we can make it easier for surgeons.