File photo for representational purposes only.
Stockholm: A Swedish hospital which last year revealed that 33 women had undergone unnecessary hysterectomies in 2023 and 2024 due to mistaken cancer diagnoses on Thursday said it had uncovered 11 more cases from 2022.
Uppsala University Hospital announced in October 2024 that 33 women were incorrectly diagnosed as being at risk of uterine cancer and were recommended surgery.
The incorrect diagnoses were discovered after the hospital saw an "unexplained increase" in cases and launched a review.
On Thursday, it said it had found 11 more women who had their uterus removed unnecessarily in 2022, in addition to one woman who was also misdiagnosed but did not undergo the surgery.
"We want to apologise to all the women affected by this. It shouldn't happen," Johan Lugnegard, chief physician at the hospital said in a statement.
"We take this very seriously and have wanted to determine the full extent and cause of this," he said.
The hospital said the women had been diagnosed with Endometrial Intraepithelial Neoplasia (EIN), a precursor to uterine cancer.
Its review uncovered "systematic overdiagnosis".
The hospital said it had contacted the 11 women, who would be offered a chance to apply for compensation, as were the 33 women affected in 2023 and 2024.
Most of the women affected in 2023 and 2024 were in their 50s and 60s, Lugnegard said last year, but no information was provided Thursday about the ages of the women affected in 2022.
Uppsala University Hospital has changed its routines since the misdiagnoses were discovered and "adopted measures to prevent similar mistakes from being made", it said.
