Tissue Removal During Hysterectomy: The Effect of Vaginal Versus Abdominal Morcellation on Surgical Outcomes

Hysterectomy is the most commonly performed non-obstetric procedure in women in the United States, with approximately 400,000 hysterectomies performed each year. Minimally invasive techniques have all been shown to have advantages over laparotomy. These include decreased blood loss, faster recovery time, improved postoperative pain and decreased postoperative complications including wound infections, thromboembolism, iatrogenic injuries and incisional hernias. Due to all of these benefits, the volume of minimally invasive procedures has increased significantly over the last ten years making tissue extraction a widely debated topic. Morcellation is a technique that allows large pieces of tissue to be removed through small incisions and was originally performed either with a scalpel or manual device until the first power/electric morcellators were introduced in 1993. Since then, power morcellation has made 50,000 to 150,000 minimally invasive hysterectomies possible annually. While the former has been an integral part in the treatment of women with large uteri and uterine fibroids, it has recently come under scrutiny due to multiple concerns including dissemination of undetected malignancy, development of iatrogenic myomas as well as increased number of reported complications and death. This has led the US Food and drug administration in April 2014 to issue a statement discouraging the use of laparoscopic power morcellation. In the face of the growing bias against electronic mechanical morcellators, other approaches must be investigated and promulgated so that patients may still benefit from minimally invasive gynecologic surgeries. The two commonly used methods for tissue extraction are manual morcellation through mini-laparotomy and vaginal morcellation. In the former, a trocar site enlargement or a new up to 1 inch incision is created through which the specimen is brought to the abdominal surface and morcellated with scalpel.In the latter, tissues are removed in the same fashion but via a colpotomy. The investigators intent is to compare manual morcellation methods (vaginal vs abdominal mini-laparotomy) in order to help surgeons choose the best approach for their patient.