Complications of IVC filter placement have resulted in a man and his wife filing a lawsuit against Cook Medical, Inc.

Plaintiff Jay H. claims he has suffered injuries as a result of the implantation of an IVC (Inferior Vena Cava) filter. His wife is suing for loss of consortium.

Jay received a Cook Celect Vena Cava Filter that was implanted on May 26, 2016. IVC filters are small, cage-like devices that are implanted in the inferior vena cava vein to prevent blood clots from traveling up to the lungs or brain. IVC filters are used in patients who cannot tolerate blood thinning medications.

Previous complications of IVC filter known as the Gunther Tulip led Cook to attempt to create a better version. The Gunther Tulip allegedly had a tendency to tilt once it was implanted. Cook’s answer to that problem was to add four more legs designed as anchoring struts to the IVC filter, creating the Cook Celect. In addition to those four anchoring struts, the Cook Celect has eight other struts (or “legs”) to help it stay centered in the vein and trap clots.

Complications of IVC Filter Include Perforation

According to the complications of IVC filter lawsuit,  the Celect IVC filter is allegedly defective because it purportedly cannot withstand the normal pushing and pulling of either the body’s movements or of the load created by the blood flow exerting pressure upon the struts.

The March 2011 publication of the Cardiovascular Interventional Radiology reported a study of Gunther Tulip and Cook Celect IVC filters implanted from July 2007 through May 2009. The study found “one hundred percent of the Cook Celect filters and Gunther Tulip filters imaged after 71 days of implant caused some degree of filter perforation of the venal caval wall.”

That same study indicated that 40 percent of the IVC filters allegedly tilted.

The Cook Celect and Gunther Tulip IVC filters are meant to be retrievable filters, meant to be removed once the threat of a blood clot has passed. One study indicated, however, that of 130 attempted retrievals, 33 found the recommended standard retrieval technique failed.

Complications of IVC filters, according to the lawsuit, include dangers of tilting, perforation, fracture and migration that could cause serious injury or death. Plaintiffs claim Cook allegedly failed to warn of the serious risks of their “defective and unreasonably dangerous” devices.

The IVC filter lawsuit alleges the medical devices lack the structural integrity to endure the daily ebb and flow of the pressures within the human body, rendering the filters an “unreasonably and carelessly designed” product.

The Complications of IVC Filter Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-cv-01673-RLY-TAB, and is part of the Cook Medical MDL, In re: Cook Medical, Inc. IVC Filters Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation,MDL No. 2570, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division.