Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Leads Vulnerable to Fracture after ICD Switch
Medtronic Sprint Fidelis leads are vulnerable to fracture following ICD switch, says a new study published in the June issue of the journal Heart Rhythm.
Canadian Warning Issued for Actos Bladder Cancer Side Effect Risk
Health Canada has become the most recent national drug regulator to issue a warning about Actos and bladder cancer. Last month, the agency warned that interim results from a 10-year-study indicated that patients taking Actos for more than a year faced an increased risk of bladder cancer. Health Canada also ...
New Study Links Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement Corrosion with Adverse Local Tissue Reactions
Yet another study is pointing to potential dangers posed by metal-on-metal hip implants. This time, an article published in the Journal of Arthroplasty is reporting corrosion in the head taper junction was more likely to occur in patients with 36-mm diameter metal-on-metal hip replacement, compared to those with the same ...
Lawsuits over DePuy ASR Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants Continue to Mount
DePuy Orthopaedics and its parent, Johnson & Johnson, continue to be hit with lawsuits over recalled metal-on-metal DePuy ASR hip implants. Just yesterday, the national law firm of Parker Waichman LLP announced it had filed yet another DePuy ASR hip implant lawsuit, this time on behalf of a Virginia resident ...
Bayer Yaz, Yasmin Blood Clot Lawsuit Settlements Stand at $147 Million
Bayer AG reported yesterday that it continues to settle Yaz and Yasmin birth control pill lawsuits. According to a report from Bloomberg News, the company said in its latest Stockholder Newsletter that it has settled 651 Yaz and Yasmin blood clot lawsuits for a total of $147 million. The average ...
Smokers More Vulnerable to Joint Replacement Failures
People who smoke cigarettes before and after receiving a total joint replacement, such as a hip replacement device or knee implant, are far more likely to endure revision surgeries on those implants than people who don’t smoke.
FDA Panel Takes up Metal-on-Metal Hip Implant Safety Today
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is convening a meeting starting today to help decide the future of metal-on-metal hip implants following high-profile recalls and mounting questions about their overall safety.
Zadroga Act Cancer Decision Expected This Week
The federal official tasked with determining what ailments should be covered by the federal Zadroga Act is expected to decide by Saturday if certain cancers will be eligible for compensation. The decision is being eagerly awaited by thousands of first responders who believe they developed cancer due to exposure ...
Western Pennsylvania Familes File Suit Over Alleged Fracking Pollution
Three families in western Pennsylvania believe a leading hydraulic fracturing (fracking) company and two water testing labs are conspiring to produce false results that show natural gas drilling is not contaminating their private water wells.Judge Orders DePuy Orthopaedics to Produce Compliance Reports in Pinnacle Cases
A federal judge overseeing a multidistrict litigation against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics has ordered DePuy to provide the plaintiffs with compliance reports on its metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implant.
More than 900 individual lawsuits have been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in U.S. District Court for Northern Texas under Judge Ed Kinkeade, MassDevice reports. The lawsuits accuse DePuy Orthopaedics of negligence, fraud, and improper design, manufacture, and marketing of the Pinnacle system. Pinnacle hip implant recipients allege the hip’s faulty design caused problems including severe swelling, pain, bone and tissue damage, and loosening of the implant. Recipients often needed additional surgery to remove and replace the implant. Continue reading
Study: Statins May Reduce Exercise Benefits in Overweight, Obese Adults
A new study has found that statins, used to lower blood cholesterol levels, may reduce exercise benefits for overweight adults.
Statins rank among the best selling drugs in the world and are typically prescribed to people with obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome (a combination of excess body fat and/or high blood pressure, blood sugar, and/or cholesterol), explained Medical News Today. Statins are prescribed to reduce cholesterol as a means of preventing blood clots, heart attack, and stroke that could lead to death.
Drugs in the statin class are known to carry a risk of causing myopathy (severe muscle damage) and should be taken with caution and at the lowest possible effective dose to reduce the risks of these side effects. Now, research conducted at the University of Missouri (MU) revealed that simvastatin—sold under the brand Zocor—stalled any positive effects from exercise in obese and overweight adults, according to Medical News Today. Continue reading
Infuse® Maker, Medtronic, Cutting Staff
Device maker, Medtronic Inc., just announced another scheduled staff cut. We recently wrote that Medtronic was laying off about 4 percent of its spinal business workforce worldwide, which amounted to about 230 of it spinal division’s 5,600 employees,
This is the third year in a row, according to Pioneer Press, that Medtronic has announced cuts. The announcement was made during a conference call and confirmed that the device maker plans on eliminating 2,000 jobs worldwide. About half will impact Medtronic’s workforce in the United States, according to the firm’s chief financial officer, Gary Ellis. Continue reading
da Vinci Robotic Surgery Case With Jury
Jury deliberations are scheduled in the first of some 26 lawsuits brought over Intuitive’s da Vinci robotic surgical system and involve allegations of injuries associated with the controversial robotic system.
Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jay Roof (Port Orchard, Washington), just handed the case to the 12-member jury after a five-week trial, according to Bloomberg News. Deliberations being this week.
Personal injury lawsuits have alleged that the da Vinci system has caused patients to suffer from a variety of adverse events, including internal injuries. Many of these injuries are the result of burns, tears, and other complications. In some cases, patients have died or suffer from chronic pain, even disability. da Vinci lawsuits fault aggressive Intuitive marketing positioned to induce hospitals to buy the costly system. Lawsuits also allege that a collaboration of design flaws and poor physician training on the da Vinci led to the injuries alleged in the litigation. At last count, some 70 deaths have been tied to the system since 2009. Continue reading
Jurors Told Intuitive Surgical Ran Like a Car Dealership
In a case involving the safety of Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci robotic system, the jury was told that the company acted “just like a car dealership” in training doctors to use the equipment.
In addition, jurors heard that the plaintiff, Fred Taylor, had died because of the company’s practices, and that Intuitive should pay more than $8 million in damages to his estate. These remarks were part of the plaintiff’s attorney’s closing arguments in a Port Orchard, Washington state court, Bloomberg News reports. Continue reading
End in Sight for Water-Contamination Cleanup at Camp Lejeune
At Camp Lejeune, the North Carolina Marine Corps base, cleanup continues of the decades-long drinking-water contamination problem that began in the 1950s.
More than 600 polluted sites are scattered around the 170-square-mile Marine base, located at the mouth of the New River. About five-dozen sites remain to be cleaned up, according to The Associated Press (AP). The contamination comes from a variety of pollutants – leaking gasoline from the base’s fuel storage farm, and chemicals including carcinogenic pesticides, benzene, and dry-cleaning solvents, some of which were intentionally dumped at Lejeune. Continue reading
Pharmacists Distributed Cheap Drug Substitutes to Kidney Dialysis Patients, Faces Four Years in Prison
A Tennessee pharmacist just pleaded guilty to swapping a cheaper drug substitute for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved iron sucrose drug for kidney dialysis patients.
The pharmacist, Robert Harshbarger, 53, substituted a cheaper version of the drug from China, which was administered to kidney dialysis patients in Kansas, according to Kansas First News. Harshbarger was conducting business as American Inhalation Medication Specialists, Inc. and pleaded guilty to one count of distributing a misbranded drug and one count of health care fraud. Continue reading
Experimental Sleep Drug, Suvorexant, Raises FDA Concerns
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that experimental insomnia drug, suvorexant, manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc., may be associated with dangerous side effects.
The experimental insomnia medication was found to be effective at helping patients sleep; however, suvorexant was found to have some significant side effects, such as daytime drowsiness and suicidal ideation, the agency’s advisory committee warned, according to CBS/The Associated Press (CBS/AP). The FDA released a review of suvorexant this week, in advance of today’s public meeting. Continue reading
Hidden Camera Reveals Horrifying Abuse of Canadian Nursing Home Patient
Shocking video footage taken by hidden camera at an Ontario, Canada, nursing home shows an elderly woman being subjected to horrific abuse at the hands of nursing home employees.
Four employees at St Joseph’s at Fleming long-term care home have been suspended pending investigation, the (U.K.) Daily Mail reports, after a patient’s son documented repeated abuse with a hidden camera he placed in his mother’s room. The Ontario Ministry of Health is investigating the case. While Alan Cavell, CEO of St Joseph’s at Fleming, stopped short of calling the treatment seen on camera abuse, “I would think that most people would say that it was,” he told CTV News. Continue reading
Metal-on-Metal Hip Device Tissue Damage Appears Before Symptoms
Metal-on-metal hip implant devices can cause synovitis—inflammation of the joint lining—and this significant adverse side effect can appear long before patients experience symptoms, according to a new study.
The study also found that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to identify synovitis, said researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery, wrote Health Canal. The research appears in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Continue reading
