Fracking Boom Changing Way of Life in Pennsylvania's Northern Tier
In just a few years, the impact of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) drilling on northeastern Pennsylvania is hard to miss. Thousands of natural gas wells have been opened in that area specifically in the last five years as companies look to exploit the vast Marcellus shale formation about two miles below the ...
Smith & Nephew Says Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement Controversy Slowing Sales of Birmingham Hip Resurfacing System
Medical device maker Smith & Nephew has reported a drop in sales of its metal-on-metal hip implant devices. According to the company, hip implant sales were down 2 percent during the first quarter of 2012, largely because its Birmingham Hip Resurfacing System suffered from an association with other metal-on-metal hip ...
Pradaxa not Fit for a Dog, Family of Alleged Pradaxa Bleeding Victim Claims
The family of a Texas woman who died just months before her 60th wedding anniversary believes she would be alive today were it not for Pradaxa (dabigatran). According to a report from the Houston Press, Pradaxa patient Loraine Franklin fell and hit her head last December, resulting in an intracranial ...
FDA Metal-On-Metal Hip Replacement Investigation Is Flawed, Researchers Say
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) metal-on-metal hip replacement investigation is flawed, according to researchers.
Medtronic Infuse Studies Faulted for Downplaying Side Effects
Medtronic Inc.’s published studies for its Infuse bone graft product may have downplayed serious side effects, according to an analysis published last year in The Spine Journal. The study, which drew on U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) documents and other data sources, suggests that up to half of ...
64 More Plavix Patients File Suit Over Bleeding Side Effects
Another Plavix lawsuit has been filed on behalf of 64 Plavix patients who allege bleeding side effects. Plavix (clopidogrel) is a blood thinner prescribed for the prevention of blood clots and heart attacks, and has been linked to serious side effects, such as the heart attacks and strokes it is ...
Smith & Nephew’s Birmingham Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement Device
Wright Medical Inc. took steps in to 2006 to convince the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to reject pre-market approval of rival Smith & Nephew’s Birmingham metal-on-metal hip implant. Wright Medical, which makes two metal-on-metal hip replacement devices, the Conserve and the Lieneage device, filed a citizen petition ...
Smith & Nephew Recalls Metal-on-Metal Hip Implant Component
Medical device maker, Smith & Nephew, just issued a recall for a metal-on-metal hip implant component, a part of one of its all-metal hip replacement systems.
Medtronic Plans Layoffs, as Infuse Bone Graft Controversy Continues to Weigh on Spinal Business
Medtronic’s spinal division continues to take a huge hit thanks to the controversy surrounding its Infuse Bone Graft product. According to a report from MassDevice.com, the company’s latest earnings report stated that the division saw Infuse sales decline 26% in the first quarter of 2012, and now Medtronic is talking ...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
