As of late October, U.S. courts are still considering consolidating Bair Hugger lawsuits into a single coordinated legal action.

The Bair Hugger is a type of surgical warming blanket alleged to promote serious deep joint infections.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has scheduled a hearing on Dec. 3, 2015. The JMPL is an organ of the U.S. court system that rules over multi district litigation,s or MDLs. MDLS are a process the court system uses to coordinate similar lawsuits.

The maker of the Bair Hugger, 3M, has opposed the creation of a unified Bair Hugger MDL. 3M has advanced arguments that Bair Hugger lawsuits do not have any basis in science. Additionally, 3M has argued that Bair Hugger lawsuits vary wildly in individual characteristics, making them unsuitable to be grouped together under one single Bair Hugger MDL.

Back in August, representatives of plaintiffs in Bair Hugger lawsuits filed a motion to centralize their Bair Hugger lawsuits into an MDL.

Often, medical device and drug cases are ideal for inclusion in an MDL, since they make similar allegations and hinge on similar evidence. Grouping the various Bair Hugger lawsuits into a single MDL could help streamline these cases.  The case will be heard in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in New Orleans.

About the Bair Hugger Warming System

The Bair Hugger is a device used to pump heated over the bodies of patients having surgery. More than 50,000 Bair Huggers are used in operating rooms across the US. The manufacturer promotes the Bair Hugger as way to maintain the core body temperature of patients during surgeries on their extremities.

During surgery, extreme measures, including both air purification with HEPA filters and painting skin with antiseptics are used to keep bacteria out of surgical wounds. HEPA filters and other tools create “laminar airflow,” a flow of purified air that keeps bacteria from drifting into surgical incisions. But Bair Hugger lawsuits allege that the device may interfere with these measures.

Bair Hugger lawsuits have alleged that the device alters airflow in such a way that it promotes dirty air from the floor to waft up over the open surgical incisions, possibly lifting dangerous bacteria into surgical wounds, promoting infection, sometimes euphemized as “complications.”

Additionally, Bair Hugger lawsuits have stated that patients who had knee implants in surgical bays with the Bair Hugger have had to have multiple follow-up surgeries, including revision surgery.

Revision surgery is a procedure wherein an artificial joint is replaced because of complications, including severe infection and implant failure. Revision surgery is more technically challenging than the original surgery, since there is usually less of the original joint remaining, meaning surgeons have less of the original tissue to work with when they anchor the new implant.

Bair Hugger Lawsuits

The mounting Bair Hugger lawsuits allege that 3M was aware—or reasonably should have been aware—that the device could promote dangerous infections in patients. Based on this allegation, Bair Hugger lawsuits assert that the Bair Hugger is inherently defective and it is fraudulent and dangerous to promote them for use.

Some sources speculate that there could be thousands of potential Bair Hugger lawsuits based on allegations of infection after surgery. Under US law, the makers of medical devices have a legal obligation to ensure that their devices are both safe and effective, and failing in this duty can leave medical device manufacturers legally liable for the outcome.