Synthetic Surgical Mesh is a Life-Threatening Medical Device

By Lana C. Keeton, Medical Device Expert

Legal Consultant/Research Analyst

1602 Alton Road, #423, Miami Beach, FL 33130

lana@lanakeeton.com 786-566-7780 www.lanakeeton.com

(all rights reserved 03-06-2010)

            Synthetic Surgical Mesh is a life-threatening medical device. It is frequently described as the “new gold standard” because it is popular, not because it has been proven safe and effective. Short term complications include infection and urinary retention, while long term complications are de novo urgency and urethral and vaginal erosions.

            “Using a transverse vaginal incision for the TVT procedure can be another risk factor for vaginal erosion, as the sling material contacts with the suture line for a longer distance compared with vertical vaginal incisions. The incidence of vaginal erosion in our patients decreased significantly after we decided to use vertical vaginal incision, as originally described by Ulmsten, in the TVT procedure.”

            Doctors are misled by rosy medical marketing showing high cure rates and very low complications. (There are no randomized controlled trials to support these numbers, just press releases from the makers of the mesh.) Patients are told nothing. Frequently they do not even know mesh has been implanted in them. If they do know the doctor has used mesh, there is no readily available information telling them exactly what mesh has been permanently surgically implanted. Patients are left in the dark.

            Future medical treatment for the serious complications of mesh becomes a mine field. The body’s own natural inflammation process, by which the surgical mesh adheres to internal tissues, never reaches the healing phase. A cascade of complications follow as chronic inflammation sets in. Autoimmune diseases multiply as the body fights the chemical leaching of nonylphenol, an endocrine disruptor showing estrogenic activity, from the polypropylene meshes. Other synthetic meshes, all petroleum based, create havoc in the body as they leach their own proprietary blend of chemicals.