Vaginal Mesh Lawsuit Continually Increasing

What is a Transvaginal mesh?

Vaginal mesh is used by surgeons as a medical implant for the treatment of Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) and Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI). Sufferers of these two debilitating conditions are women of old age who have had past histories of hysterectomies and menopauses. In addition, some young women are also at risk for these ailments, especially those who have had delivered vaginally before.   With regards to this truth, the number of women introduced to the implantation of trans-vaginal mesh (TVM) is continuously rising.

As observed recently, many women across the United States were affected with Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) and Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI).  At first, the use of vaginal mesh  gained the physicians’ and the consumers’ confidence since patient’s recovery from the symptoms of POP and SUI were strikingly fast, but after a few years, complaints of its complications started to pile up and increase at a rapid pace. 

When was the vaginal mesh first used?

Used by most physicians as a surgical treatment for hernia, surgical meshes invaded the world of surgeries in the 1950’s.  It was then used to repair POP and SUI in 1970; and in 199o, it was introduced as a vaginal implant for the treatment of the same conditions. 

The use of vaginal implants has caused too much uproar among affected women who had developed irreversible complications from the implantation of the vaginal mesh, which resulted to the influx of vaginal mesh lawsuits all over the United States.  

The most frequently reported complications linked to vaginal meshes are: erosion of the vaginal mesh, hemorrhage, infection, pelvic organ perforations, recurring prolapse, and urinary disabilities.  These symptoms are benign at first, but these can be harmful in the long run and may need several procedures to repair; some of these may even be irreparable. 

To date, the number of lawsuits recorded is indefinite, but with the increasing number of unsatisfied consumers, there’s no doubt that TVM lawsuits will continue to rise. 

A safety warning on the use of vaginal mesh were issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to all health care providers to ensure the benefits of TVM implants before considering them as treatment for their POP and SUI patients. 

Even with the announcements made by the FDA, there are still many physicians performing them in the treatment of POP and SUI and manufacturers are still producing and selling them to healthcare facilities. 

A consumer advocacy group called Public Citizen petitioned the FDA on August 25, 2011 for the recall of all non-absorbable vaginal mesh products.   Recently, the FDA is still carefully investigating this issue, and encourages all health care providers and patients to actively participate in this investigation by reporting any complications of vaginally-implanted surgical mesh the first time it is observed.

What are the Medical Techniques Used to Correct Uterine Prolapse?

Women have endlessly suffered because of the debilitating effects of surgical mesh in the treatment of uterine prolapse, medical news says. Truly, this medical tool has slowly become controversial that even women who have not received it have already started asking questions. What happens during vaginal mesh placement?

Uterine prolapse is one of the many diseases that vaginal mesh is meant to address; however, there are also other options available to women. Doctors would almost always recommend the removal of the uterus, but only if the patient has no plans of giving birth or when the presence of the uterus feeds more harm to the patient than benefits.

Hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) is classified into three types, depending on the extent of the parts removed, and these are subtotal, total, and radical hysterectomy. In subtotal hysterectomy, only the displaced part of the uterus is excised, but when the whole uterus is ultimately out of place, the total removal of the organ and the cervix may be implemented.

Radical hysterectomy may only be done in cases when the womb is cancerous. With hysterectomy procedures, the patient’s chance to recover is high but this method is not for everyone. Women with pelvic and ovarian problems are carefully considered.

Colpocleisis is yet another surgical approach for uterine prolapse. This is usually used in severe cases when the prolapse is difficult to manage. It involves stitching the front part of the vagina onto its back, hence completely sealing off the vaginal itroitus. Women who have no problem putting an end to their sex life may opt for this procedure as well as those who have poor chances of getting cured from all the other approaches.

Another type of uterine repair is sacrospinous fixation, which needs the autografting of some of the uterine ligaments into the spinal ligaments, thus strengthening the pelvic floor. This is equivalent to vaginal mesh implant, but instead of a biological tissue, an artificial material that is often made of polypropylene is applied.

Urology and gynecology specialists trust that a vaginal support effectively fixes the damaged tissues by reinforcing the base of the pelvic diaphragm. While some recipients believe that doctors should be held liable for not disclosing the negative complications of this procedure, many are after the manufacturers that produced them and failed to assess the effectiveness and the safety of their products. On account of this, there have already been thousands of vaginal mesh lawsuit in the United States up to this day.

References:

http://women.webmd.com/guide/hysterectomy?page=2
http://www.gconstantine.co.uk/COLPOC~1.htm
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/uterine_prolapse/hic_uterine_prolapse.aspx

For Women: Some Useful Information about the Bladder

Common to almost a quarter of the adult women population in the United States, there are still many who are confused about bladder prolapse. The bladder is a hollow organ belonging to the pelvic region.   Its main function is retaining urine to make voiding controllable.  The bladder, with all the neighboring organs like the urethra, uterus, and rectum, is held in place by the connective tissues that line walls of the vagina.  These connective tissues spread across the vaginal wall.  With age, these tissues stretch and shatter prompting the pelvic organs to be dislocated. This condition is called pelvic organ prolapse.

When the bladder falls into the front wall of the vagina (this condition is called bladder prolapse), symptoms occur such as pain in the pelvis or lower back and during sexual intercourse, urinary problems like stress incontinence and incomplete urination, and the development of infections. Women who have had their uterus removed, and those who have had multiple childbirths are most possible to acquire pelvic organ prolapse. Women after menopause are prone to this as well.  In menopause, there is a lower production of the hormone estrogen.  Since estrogen helps with the production of collagen in the body, lower estrogen level also means low collagen level.   When the body’s collagen level is down, pelvic tissues sag and crash. 

For this condition, treatment options are only few.  Vaginal mesh implantation is one of these.  As most women would say, it is the modern treatment for Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence.   But, it has been associated with harmful after effects that are hard to correct if not permanent.  These adverse events include mesh erosion, pain, bleeding, recurrence of prolapse, problems with urination, pelvic organ perforation, and infections.

These negative effects of vaginal mesh prompted recipients of this medical device to file lawsuits against mesh manufacturers across the United States.  There are thousands of lawsuits filed, and there's a great chance this number will increase because there are still many mesh manufacturers producing these medical devices.  Because of these increasing number of vaginal mesh lawsuits, recipients and producers of these deadly medical devices are both requesting the Judicial Panel for a multidistrict litigation of defective vaginal mesh lawsuits. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actively reacted on these issues by providing the public with safety information on the risks posed by the use of these meshes.  However, there are still many doctors performing vaginal mesh implantation to repair prolapsed pelvic organs like the bladder, uterus, rectum, and urethra; these have caused the increase of vaginal mesh lawsuit in the United States. The most common forms of these are urethral and bladder prolapse.

References:

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/prolapsed_bladder/page5_em.htm#Exams and Tests
http://bladder-problems.org/prolapsed-bladder-and-the-fixes/
http://www.cigna.com/individualandfamilies/health-and-well-being/hw/medical-topics/pelvic-organ-prolapse-tv1000.html

Lawyers for Vaginal Mesh Malfunction

Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence are two urogynecologic procedures wherein vaginal mesh is used.    When pelvic organs collapse into the vaginal wall, the condition of Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) has occurred which causes tremendous physical pain and swelling of the female genitalia.    Stress Urinary Incontinence occurs when a woman’s sphincter muscle and the pelvic muscles fails to support her bladder and urethra disabling her from control over her urinary cycle.  Surgical mesh is placed on the affected area to support the vaginal wall in POP and to reinforce the bladder and urethra in SUI.    Materials for surgical mesh are categorized as non-absorbable synthetic, absorbable synthetic, biologic materials and composite materials.   However, for urogynecologic procedures, vaginal mesh may be composed only of non-absorbable synthetic materials or absorbable synthetic. 

Cases of vaginal mesh complications have been closely monitored by the US Food and Drug Administration.   It subsequently reclassified the vaginal mesh injury as “high risk” after they issued a warning of a five-fold increase of affected women, as their records showed over 1,000 reported mesh malfunctions.   Frequent consequences of vaginal mesh injuries include vaginal mesh erosion, infection, dyspareunia, urinary problems, and recurrence of prolapsed or incontinence.  The FDA sent out an alert in the medical sector for transvaginal placement of surgical mesh, recognizing the serious consequence it may produce. 

Reports for vaginal mesh injuries counted at 1,503 in 2008-2010 according to the FDA.   About 70,000 women were noted by the FDA as recipients of vaginal mesh from POP surgeries during that time.    Various injured women eventually filed lawsuits and complaints as a result.   Vaginal mesh makers, including Boston Scientific Corp. and Johnson & Johnson, are now facing litigation amounting over 600 from diverse claimants as the FDA reports. 

A demand for Vaginal Mesh Lawyers became apparent as more and more women come out to claim compensation for the terrible fate they had endured out of vaginal mesh implants.    As embarrassment and besmirched womanhood pushed countless of distressed patients, lawyer-client relationships had a new meaning.    Aimed at prosecuting unscrupulous manufacturers, a Vaginal Mesh Lawyer shares the cause with countless of American women for utter disregard of product quality and efficiency.    Vaginal Mesh Lawyers became a fountain of comfort, relief and hope for helpless women in the middle of this nightmare as the battle for monetary compensation.   They became a channel for justice and vindication and a mouthpiece to victims who are silenced by this unfortunate event. 

REFERENCES:
businessweek.com/magazine/the-next-medical-device-controversy-vaginal-mesh-09152011.html

bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-20/j-j-vaginal-mesh-approved-by-fda-based-on-older-recalled-device.html
google2.fda.gov/search?q=cache:JmJWnkb8i_UJ:www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/UCM262760.pdf+vaginal+mesh&client=FDAgov&site=FDAgov&lr=&proxystylesheet=FDAgov&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&access=p&oe=UTF-8
fda.gov/medicaldevices/safety/alertsandnotices/publichealthnotifications/ucm061976.htm