Canadians File Ethicon Physiomesh Class Action Lawsuit

Ottawa, ONT: Canadian patients who have suffered harm resulting from Ethicon’s Inc.’s Physiomesh Flexible Composite Mesh products have filed a class action against the medical device manufacturer.

Like their American counterparts who are pursing Ethicon through the American courts in a multi-district litigation, Canadians patients allege the Ethicon hernia patch has design defects. They further allege that those design defects cause the mesh to contract, tear, or migrate, resulting in pain, infection, perforations, abscesses, adhesions, and other complications that require revision surgery to remove the mesh.

The Ethicon mesh became available in Canada in September 2010. However, in June 2016, Health Canada recalled Physiomesh after the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary learned that the recurrence and reoperation rates after hernia repair using the mesh were higher than the average rates of other meshes, according to a report on CTVNews.ca.

At the time of the recall, Ethicon stated that the higher rates were “a multifactorial issue” including possible product characteristics and patient factors, but the company hadn’t been able “to fully characterize these factors.”

A global recall was also issued in 2016, after unpublished data from two European hernia registries suggested Physiomesh Flexible Composite Mesh products were associated with higher average recurrence and revision rates in laparoscopic ventral hernia repair versus comparable meshes. (CTVNews.ca)

Estimates suggest as many as 30,000 Canadians may have received Physiomesh Flexible Composite Mesh during hernia repair surgery.

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Published on Mar-31-17