Morcellation

anmazon
anmazon Member Posts: 144
edited July 2014 in Kidney Cancer #1

Howdy, folks.  I've been kind of disappeared for a while.  I was terribly depressed for a while, but seem to be coming out of it.  Made it through my one year scans--no evidence of recurrence or metastases.  Yay!

 

Anyhow, I've been reading with interest the news about the recommendations not to use morcellation for hysterctomies, and the recall today by J&J/Ethicon of their morcellators.

 

I know that my kidney, adrenal gland, etc., were morcellated.  Any thoughts on there being a risk of cancer cells "seeding" after a nephrectomy involving morcellation?

Appreciate your feedback. 

Comments

  • APny
    APny Member Posts: 1,995 Member
    #2
    LapSac

    This is from a review article on LN using morcellation. It’s from 2002 so I would imagine techniques were even better when you had it done.

    “If the specimen is to be morcellated, a LapSac™ (Cook Urological, Inc., Spencer, IN), fabricated from a double layer of plastic and nondistensible nylon, must be used. This device has been shown to withstand morcellation and remain impermeable to bacteria and tumor cells. During LRN, attempts should be made to perform a wide en bloc dissection to ensure an adequate surgical margin. The field is draped prior to morcellation and all potentially cancerous tissue entrapped in an impermeable sac prior to extraction from a trocar site”

    So while I’m no expert, I would think you’re safe because the sac prevented any tissue from leaving it and being spread around.

    Here’s the original source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1475958/

  • anmazon
    anmazon Member Posts: 144
    #3
    APny said:

    LapSac

    This is from a review article on LN using morcellation. It’s from 2002 so I would imagine techniques were even better when you had it done.

    “If the specimen is to be morcellated, a LapSac™ (Cook Urological, Inc., Spencer, IN), fabricated from a double layer of plastic and nondistensible nylon, must be used. This device has been shown to withstand morcellation and remain impermeable to bacteria and tumor cells. During LRN, attempts should be made to perform a wide en bloc dissection to ensure an adequate surgical margin. The field is draped prior to morcellation and all potentially cancerous tissue entrapped in an impermeable sac prior to extraction from a trocar site”

    So while I’m no expert, I would think you’re safe because the sac prevented any tissue from leaving it and being spread around.

    Here’s the original source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1475958/

    Thank you.

    Thanks, APny. That is very comforting.  I had an excellent surgeon and I'm certain he did everything by the book.

     

    It's a little unnerving nonetheless.

     

    Nothing worse than being a hypochondriac cancer survivor.  B-)

  • APny
    APny Member Posts: 1,995 Member
    #4
    anmazon said:

    Thank you.

    Thanks, APny. That is very comforting.  I had an excellent surgeon and I'm certain he did everything by the book.

     

    It's a little unnerving nonetheless.

     

    Nothing worse than being a hypochondriac cancer survivor.  B-)

    "Nothing worse than being a

    "Nothing worse than being a hypochondriac cancer survivor."

    I can totally related to that, lol ;)

     

  • anmazon
    anmazon Member Posts: 144
    #5
    APny said:

    "Nothing worse than being a

    "Nothing worse than being a hypochondriac cancer survivor."

    I can totally related to that, lol ;)

     

    That was an attempt at humor

    Laughing

    But it's true!

     

     

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