A gastric bypass is a commonly performed surgery within the United States and is usually performed to help obese individuals loss weight. Each year, it is estimated that 177,000 individuals received a gastric bypass surgery.
While gastric bypass can be a very helpful weight loss surgery, there are some complications associated with the procedure. More specifically, there have been many medical and consumer reports alleging adverse health problems caused by gastric bypass stomach staple defects. In many reported cases, the stomach staples placed along the shrunken stomach lining fail because of an alleged design defect in the staples or the stapler itself. As a result, the sutures cannot stay closed on their own without the aid of the staples.
Ethicon Echelon Gastric Bypass Stomach Stapler
Some stomach stapler models, such as the Echelon 60mm Black Reload and Echelon Flex manufactured by the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., were recalled internationally in May 2013. The Ethicon Echelons stomach staplers make up close to two-thirds of the gastric bypass stapler market, meaning this world-wide recall may indicate a serious design flaw.
According to reports submitted to Ethicon and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the main stomach stapler problems associated with the Echelon device is that the stapler is allegedly prone to breaking during use causing serious gastric bypass complications. If the Echelon stomach stapler breaks during a firing sequence, the stapler may misfire and cause potential extraneous damage or become stuck in the surgical area and create an incomplete staple line. In the case of a stomach staple not fully closing or failing to fully puncture the stomach tissue, stomach fluid and blood to leak from the surgical site into the abdominal cavity, which will cause other complications.
As a result of the painful and often damaging and life-threatening complications resulting from an allegedly defective stomach stapler, many patients and their families are choosing to pursue gastric bypass stomach stapler lawsuits and may join gastric bypass stomach stapler class action lawsuits.
Stomach Staple Problems
Some gastric bypass complications that may arise from a stomach stapler misfiring or from a staple failing to fully close surgical sutures may include.
- Sepsis
- Infection
- Dehiscence (separation of areas that are stitched or stapled together)
- Anastomotic leakage (leakage from tubular structures, such as blood vessels and intestines)
- Hemorrhage
- Leaks from staple lines
- Reoperation
- Death
Since the inception of stomach staplers in gastric bypass surgery, the FDA has received roughly 8,000-9,000 stomach stapler complication reports each and every year. The majority of these reports allege that their gastric bypass complications stem form a stomach stapler misfiring or failing to close the bypass suture lines. Because of the popularity of gastric bypass surgery, the exact number of potential Class Members of any given gastric bypass stomach stapler complications class action lawsuit is unknown. However, considering the number of FDA adverse event reports of alleged stomach stapler injury, it may be safe to assume that the potential number of gastric bypass stomach stapler victims may number in the thousands of tens of thousands.
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