Ethicon Hernia Mesh Products Can Cause Irreparable Damage to Your Body When Improperly Implanted During a Hernia Repair Surgery

Hernia repair surgeries are common surgical procedures today. When a hernia occurs, there are most likely masses of internal tissue that can start to bulge out of the lower abdomen, which can be found to be escaping in openings around the muscles. At the time that this nodule breaks free from the abdominal wall, it can develop into a hernia quite easily. Typically, a hernia can develop in several areas of the body in men and women, including:

• Groin (inguinal)
• Naval (umbilical)
• Previous site of a surgical incision

If you experience a complication following your hernia mesh surgery using an Ethicon mesh product, you can call us immediately 866-INJURY2 or 866-465-8792. We can discuss your personal injuries with you when you call, and give you the next steps to initiating a lawsuit based on the merits of your claim for personal injury and damages related to the use of an Ethicon hernia mesh product implanted in your body from a hernia repair surgery. When looking for some of the best Los Angeles hernia mesh lawyers, look no further than a firm with over 40 years experience and a 98%+ success rate. Walch Law is ready to get started today.

Ethicon is responsible for many hernia repairs that are made with an Ethicon mesh product. The Ethicon meshes are those sold and manufactured by Ethicon and can be marketed under a variety of different names. In the hernia surgical procedure, first the hernia sac is removed surgically by the surgeon. Next, the mesh is measured to fit the area of the hernia to begin the process to implant it for the repair. Once the hernia mesh is in place, it will help prevent a recurring hernia, and firm up and strengthen the tissue and muscle surrounding the hernia in the body.

The Ethicon mesh products are available to repair a hernia, by placing the mesh on top of the hernia, and attaching the mesh to the tissue with sutures to help the hernia heal over time. But there are many people who have had an Ethicon hernia mesh product implanted into their bodies, who have complications or other repair-related issues because of the failure of the hernial mesh.

In general, Ethicon surgical hernia meshes such as the ULTRAPRO® Partially Absorbable

Lightweight Mesh, PROLENE® Polypropylene Hernia System and PROCEED® Surgical Mesh have been on the market for many years, as hernia mesh repair products. These products utilize new and current technologies that include microporous mesh surfaces, featuring absorbing tissue-separating barriers, to help prevent infections post-surgery.

The problems such as an infection or other complications after a hernia mesh procedure can come when the hernia or other type of mesh is improperly implanted or when the product is defective in some way, which can cause a complication such as an infection for the patient. When this happens, it is going to be more difficult to fully recover quickly from the surgery, and there may be some lasting consequences as a result of having the mesh surgery with the Ethicon mesh products. When this happens, you can feel free to call our law office to review your personal injury claim, and we are on your side and can get you the money you deserve in this situation.

There are different types of hernia meshes available in the medical marketplace, and there are many different manufacturers of hernia mesh on the market. Each brand of hernia mesh is either visible or not when a radiologist uses CT or MRI technology to check the status of a hernial mesh. If the surgical hernia mesh is not visible when being reviewed with a high-resolution imaging machine, then the surgeon or radiologist will not be able to tell if there are infections or complications developing related to the hernial mesh in a person’s body. For this reason, it is critical that you monitor your body and the possibility of infection closely, to ensure that you have not developed a deadly infection inside your body, after and following the hernia mesh surgical procedure. Some infections can affect other organs and can wreak havoc on your recovery after a simple hernia mesh surgery. You need to talk to us immediately if this has happened to you, because we can help you in this case, to get you the money you need to fully recover after complications prevent a full recovery after a hernia surgery with an Ethicon mesh product.

The Ethicon hernia mesh is not readily visible during an MRI. This is the worst news, because if the MRI of a patient just shows visible thickening of an internal area of the body, then there may be no understanding of any inflammatory response to the mesh that can be seen with an MRI. Of course, what doctor is going to make a diagnosis “blind”? But this will be the case with an Ethicon hernial mesh product. This is because the company may not be under the strictest requirement to advise of the radiopaque properties of its mesh, and in most cases, if it is not seen, then the complications will be diagnosed later than usual as a result of this defect.

Studies show that synthetic mesh is used most frequently for repairing of a lower hernia mesh with the lowest risk of recurrence, in the place of using biologic mesh in patients with hernias.⁵ In the past, biologic mesh was used frequently for the reinforcement of contaminated ventral hernia repairs, but had high recurrence rates with this system.⁵ Additionally, the biologic mesh costs nearly 200 times more than the synthetic mesh costs, for use in a hernia surgery. The use of a synthetic mesh can also cut down on the complication that can arise from a hernia repair surgical procedure.

A bullectomy surgical procedure is where the surgeon removes any damage to air sacs located in the lungs and pleural cavity are repaired with a mesh material. Ethicon makes meshes that have been routinely used during a bullectomy surgical procedure. If you are suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, and have had a lung collapse or experience chronic shortness of breath, you may need to have the damaged air sacs in the lungs or bullae removed during a bullectomy procedure. The use of the Ethicon vicryl mesh helps to prevent recuring pneumothorax complications, by reinforcement of the visceral pleura and symphyseal effects.³ The use of the vicryl mesh offers absorbability wherein the mesh loses 50% of around 3 weeks after implantation in the body, and disappears altogether by absorption after 90 days or so after the surgery.³

The use of the Ethicon Physiomesh devices can result in a more than half reduction in the surgeon’s perceived workload stress, as well as a lowered physiological reactivity to the surgery for the patient with reduced total surgery time by over 60%.⁷ The Ethicon surgical mesh is used for mechanical fixation of a hernia mesh, but may have complications at the site of the hernia, based on the product and the ventral and incisional hernia repair procedures.⁷ If there are complications with the Ethicon mesh, it can decrease the patient's outcomes after a hernia repair procedure, because it will increase the postoperative pain following the repair procedure.

The patients can experience difficulties with the Ethicon Surestrap device, when it is inserted improperly by the surgeon during a hernia repair surgery. The use of the open fixation device is compared with the use of a suture fixation of mesh devices, offering more convenience for the patient. But if the surgeon does not put the mesh into the patient’s body properly, the opposite of the desired effect will occur, with increased levels of infection for the patient at the top of the list.^2,6

The Ethicon mesh has also been used for the treatment of breast cancer in the process of reconstruction surgical procedures.⁴ This mesh has also been used for a reverse abdominoplasty technique to help with healing and a reduction of a mammoplasty for the contouring procedure for the upper abdomen of a patient. Additionally, the Ethicon mesh has also been used in the case of providing tissue coverage for burn patients, where it was necessary to cover large chest wall area defects from breast cancer surgeries.¹

In the event that you are injured from an Ethicon hernia mesh product, you may want to consider a hernial mesh lawsuit. When you give us a call, we can review your case, discuss the next steps and go over your claim for personal injuries related to the use of an Ethicon hernia mesh to repair your hernia. And hiring Walch Law as your hernia mesh law firm is free—we take all our cases on a contingency fee basis.

If you have questions regarding the worth, value or settlement procedures related to an Ethicon hernia or you experience any other type of Ethicon use of a mesh complication, you can call us to review your lawsuit based on the merits of your claim. It is easy to start your lawsuit, all you need to do is to call our law office today to talk about your concerns. We are available to take your call at the Law Offices of Gary K. Walch, and you can call us at 866-INJURY2 or 866-465-8792.

References

¹Alves, A. S., Martineau, J., Dupuis, A., Zuo, K., Kalbermatten, D. F., & Oranges, C. M. (2023). Reverse Abdominoplasty in a Patient Presenting with Subcostal Nephrectomy Scar and Transverse Muscle Incisional Hernia. Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global Open, 11(9), e5297. https://doi.org/10.1097/GOX.0000000000005297

²Erratum: Preclinical evaluation of the effect of the combined use of the Ethicon Securestrap® Open Absorbable Strap Fixation Device and Ethicon Physiomesh™ Open Flexible Composite Mesh Device on surgeon stress during ventral hernia repair [Corrigendum]. (2018). Medical Devices (Auckland, N.Z.), 11, 37. https://doi.org/10.2147/MDER.S161518

³Hsu, H. H., Liu, Y. H., Chen, H. Y., Chen, P. H., Chen, K. C., Hsieh, M. J., Lin, M. W., Kuo, S. W., Huang, P. M., Chao, Y. K., Wu, C. F., Wu, C. Y., Chiu, C. H., Chen, W. H., Wen, C. T., Liu, C. Y., Wu, Y. C., & Chen, J. S. (2021). Vicryl Mesh Coverage Reduced Recurrence After Bullectomy for Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 112(5), 1609–1615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2020.11.012

⁴Rodriguez-Unda, N., Leiva, S., Cheng, H. T., Seal, S. M., Cooney, C. M., & Rosson, G. D. (2015). Low incidence of complications using polyglactin 910 (Vicryl) mesh in breast reconstruction: A systematic review. Journal of plastic, reconstructive & aesthetic surgery: JPRAS, 68(11), 1543–1549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjps.2015.06.018

⁵Rosen, M. J., Krpata, D. M., Petro, C. C., Carbonell, A., Warren, J., Poulose, B. K., Costanzo, A., Tu, C., Blatnik, J., & Prabhu, A. S. (2022). Biologic vs Synthetic Mesh for Single-stage Repair of Contaminated Ventral Hernias: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Surgery, 157(4), 293–301. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2021.6902

⁶Roy, S., Shnoda, P., Savidge, S., Hammond, J., Panish, J., & Wilson, M. (2013). Reduction in fixation time and related surgical stress with the use of Ethicon Securestrap™ open absorbable strap fixation device in the deployment of intra-peritoneal onlay mesh (IPOM) for open ventral hernia repair. Value in Health, 16(7), A486.

⁷Sutton, N., MacDonald, M. H., Lombard, J., Ilie, B., Hinoul, P., & Granger, D. A. (2017). Preclinical evaluation of the effect of the combined use of the Ethicon Securestrap® Open Absorbable Strap Fixation Device and Ethicon Physiomesh™ Open Flexible Composite Mesh Device on surgeon stress during ventral hernia repair. Medical Devices (Auckland, N.Z.), 11, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.2147/MDER.S146761