[1] In laparoscopic hysterectomy the uterus is cut up in strips, or morcellated, into smaller pieces inside the patient's abdominal cavity in order to extract from the abdomen.
[1][2] Laparoscopic morcellation is commonly used at surgery to remove bulky specimens from the abdomen using minimally invasive techniques.
Concerns have been raised about injury to surrounding organs including bowel, bladder, ureters, pancreas, spleen and major vascular structures.
[3][7] Since April 2014 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has discouraged its use for uterine procedures, issuing a warning that morcellators may spread occult cancer in the course of fibroid removal.
[9] The FDA says that it has known for some time that the morcellators could spread uterine cancer, but the recent [vague] attention given to the subject because of the death of Barbara Leary leading them to reopen the investigation, and they discovered a higher risk than was initially reported.