The number of IVC filter lawsuits filed against the medical products company Cook Medical continues to grow.

In response, Cook has called for the litigation involving their IVC filter products to be split into two phases, one phase for compensatory damages and a separate phase for punitive damages.

All Cook Medical IVC filter lawsuits have been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Southern District of Indiana. Attorneys in that MDL are gearing up for a series of bellwether trails, which will gauge how juries respond to the evidence and testimony brought to the court.

Because the IVC filter lawsuits have been connected with hundreds of others, the bellwether responses will give a good idea of the likely outcomes in future cases.

IVC Filter Damages

Cook Medical motioned for the presiding judge to separate punitive and compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are designed to compensate individuals for their personal injuries, while punitive damages are designed to punish the company for its involvement in manufacturing and marketing the IVC filters.

Cook Medical’s motion to separate punitive and compensatory damages delays questions and decisions about punitive damages until after decisions about compensatory damages have already been made.

The motion filed by Cook Medical argues that splitting the punitive and compensatory damages (known as “bifurcating”) would allow both the parties and the jury to focus on “pertinent issues of liability and compensatory damages.”

Adding in arguments about punitive damages, the company said, would “improperly influence” the jury with evidence about Cook Medical’s “potentially inflammatory financial information,” which the motion argues would be “relevant only to calculating a monetary award of punitive damages.”

Retrievable IVC Filters

Most patients at risk of developing blood clots take blood thinners, but in patients for whom blood thinners present a danger, doctors use inferior vena cava filters, or IVC filters. The IVC was first used in 1979, and has grown considerably more widespread since then. By 2012, doctors had inserted IVC filters into more than 250,000 patients.

The IVC filter is placed inside the inferior vena cava, the largest vein in the human body. The inferior vena cava returns blood back into the heart and then on to the lungs.

Blood clots in this vein are extremely dangerous, as they may travel to the lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism (PE). PE causes about 300,000 deaths every year, though they are preventable with the right measures.

Some IVC filters are made to be removed eventually, once they are no longer needed. Doctors remove the filters in much the same way they were inserted, using a catheter through the vein to grab the filter, which is then covered and pulled out. Retrievable IVC filters are considered unnecessary and subsequently removed once the patient is no longer at risk for PE.

Retrievable IVC filters are the IVC filters involved in IVC lawsuits. These filters can lead to complications such as blood vessel and/or organ perforation, filter migration, and even devices breaking apart inside of patients.

Since 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received 921 reports of dangerous filter complications. The most common complication was device migration, which 35 percent of reports included. Device migration occurs when the entire filter moves away from its original location.

Several studies have revealed the retrievable IVC filters most prone to failure. These are:

• Bard Recovery filter
• Bard G2 filter
• Gunther Tulip filters
• Cook Celect filters

The Bard Recovery filter had a failure rate of about 25 percent, causing the device to fracture or break apart. The Bard G2 filter had a 12 percent failure rate. All of Gunther Tulip and Cook Celect filters punctured patients’ veins, and 40 percent of the filters migrated out of place.

Injured patients have filed lawsuits against a number of IVC filter makers, citing organ damage due to filter migration and breaks, as well as other complications. If you or someone you know has undergone complications due to retrievable IVC filters, you may have cause to file a lawsuit.