Bernadette Plattner*, a woman from the Romandie, traveled the had made a few months ago in the German part of Switzerland, in order to have a implant from the abdomen out to operate, your life a misery. The specialists, which may the are rar. Weeks later, she flew, therefore, even abroad for a further Operation.
It’s a vaginal implant which is used in the Nu, in the case of complications but hard to remove, because it grows into the tissue.
After several births the Mittvierzigerin who wants to remain anonymous, had incontinence problems. In Switzerland, up to 20 percent of all women who have given birth, suffer from this weakness. Plattner’s doctor recommended a 12-centimeter-long blue ribbon with a synthetic network. Similar, but wider networks is also, when in women, the bladder or the uterus decreases, because the muscles and ligaments are sagging in the pelvic floor.
tens of thousands of lawsuits in the USA due to the implant
The procedure takes 20 minutes, said the doctor. Then your Problem is solved. Special risks the doctors told nothing, she says. It was not the speech of them that three years earlier a woman in the US received because of the exact same network of 5.7 million Swiss francs in damages because she suffered unbearable pain. The company and the treating doctor would have to warn a little against the dangers, and the Design of the implant is unsuitable, the California judge. Of all the Plattner knew nothing. A colleague, who was also implanted with a net, didn’t know the dangers.
As Plattner from the anesthesia, woke up, and hurt her from the waist to the feet, everything. After ten days, you had to give her the maximum dose of painkillers. “I could take care of me, neither my family nor work.” Then she began to look for explanations and not discovered in the Internet that she is not alone.
Worldwide implanted Doctors in the last ten years, hundreds of thousands of such networks and bands. In one study, British researchers concluded in 2017, that every tenth woman suffered with a plastic mesh against incontinence complications: severe pain, bleeding, perforated organs, parts of the band that migrated to other organs, severe inflammation. The scientists studied the data of 92’000 patients, which was used from 2007 to 2015 a network.
Also in Australia processes instead of
profits in millions of dollars at the manufacturers of thousands of women are suffering. Worldwide cover for a couple of years, the courts with lawsuits. In addition to the above-mentioned court case in California, it complaints are in the US alone, around 70’000 more civil. Also in Australia processes.
Among the accused companies to find a company with headquarters in Switzerland. In one of the suburbs of new castle, the controversial synthetic networks to be manufactured, the tape which has been implanted with Plattner. In the production halls of the company Ethicon, a subsidiary of US group Johnson&Johnson. Ethicon is one of the leading suppliers of these networks and has already been paid in high claims for damages and settlement amounts.
Ethicon says on request: The surgery with implantable networks based on years of clinical research and had been subjected to a regulatory audit. It is the preferred Option for millions of women who wanted to improve their quality of life.
Even an orange network passed the test stations
in 2012, the Ethicon-model “Prolift” from the market. The network (TVT Abbrevo), which was implanted Plattner, is still on the market. Also in Switzerland. As well as other networks in the United States, the subject of lawsuits.
A survey in Swiss hospitals shows that Doctors of the University hospital of Lausanne implant per year, 100 to 120 copies. At Zurich’s Triemli hospital in the past year, 40 incontinence tapes have been used at the University hospital of Basel are per year around 20 interventions, the Inselspital in Bern is known, however, speaks of “a few”.
Plattner and her colleague in Switzerland are the Only ones with problems. The island hospital indicates that it had to remove in the last three years, 35 of external doctors implanted networks. “The network distance is a complex, some of which are extremely difficult operation. Not always total removal is possible. The time required for the Operation is sometimes very high”, it means the island’s hospital. In Basel were operated during the same period, three of the foreign Doctors implanted networks.
nets, are pulled in the 90s on the market
A Swiss surgeon, who does not want to be called, two years ago, to London, to the Implantation of the networks to educate. There, he found that the use of networks, but due to numerous complications at the running meter.
The nets came out in the 90s on the market. The manufacturer took advantage of a loophole in the rules. If you can provide for a new medical product that it is a follow-on product to an earlier Version, it needs no lengthy clinical trials. In the sale there was already a network against hernias. The approval for the vaginal networks was, therefore, in the fast-track procedure.
The tabs of the provisions tested shout of 2015, the Dutch journalist Jet. You cut out a rectangle from a orange network from the supermarket and filed it with a elaborate documentation as a new vaginal mesh in three European test centres. She received consistently positive reactions.
“It can lead to complications, which are due to the Material.”Tilemachos kavvadias sofoulis, senior physician at the women’s clinic of the Basel University hospital
the World’s authorities on the issue. In the summer of 2017, has apologized to the Australian government at the women for a decade of suffering due to these implants and the networks banned. In the UK, a temporary stop. As long as you do not have the risk of complications, and should not be applied to the tapes for incontinence, means there.
In Switzerland there is currently no similar measures are in force. The Doctors, the hospitals asked Dunning to differentiate in this controversy. Different surgical techniques have played a role. Tilemachos kavvadias sofoulis, senior physician at the women’s clinic of the Basel University hospital, says: “It can lead to complications, which are due to the Material. It is wrong, however, to make the implant for all the complications responsible. Because it needs for this implant have enough experience of the operating physician, and the right indication.” In the last summer, has been set up at European level a task force to evaluate the dangers of these networks. The Swiss cure authority. The Work is still in progress.
* the Name has been changed
notes to recherchedesk@tamedia.ch
(Sunday newspaper)
Created: 26.01.2019, 20:29 PM
