A woman has filed a lawsuit regarding C-Qur hernia mesh problems she said she has suffered since implantation of the mesh in 2011.

Plaintiff Rebecca T.’s lawsuit against C-Qur maker Atrium Medical Corp. has been added to an MDL currently with the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.

Rebecca said she underwent a hernia operation in January 2011. Her doctor used the C-Qur Mesh V-Patch to assist in her hernia repair. According to her lawsuit, she experienced C-Qur hernia mesh problems including “removal of umbilicus, removal of chronically infected umbilical mesh, umbilical hernia recurrence requiring placement of new mesh for repair, chronic draining sinus from the umbilicus, chronic infection [and] pain.”

As a result, Rebecca said she had the hernia mesh removed on April 4, 2013.

Alleged C-Qur Hernia Mesh Problems

According to the MDL, C-Qur mesh is made of polypropylene that is covered with an Omega 3 fatty acid gel obtained from fish oil. This fish oil coating is unique among hernia products sold in the United States.

Atrium allegedly represented the Omega 3 coating as a means to prevent or minimize inflammation and adhesions, allowing the mesh to more easily become accepted by the body, but this didn’t happen. Instead, the fish oil coating often caused an extreme inflammatory response and rejection.

Because the Omega 3 coating is impermeable and is affixed to the body’s internal tissues, the mesh doesn’t allow fluid to escape. When fluid becomes trapped inside the body, serous fluid collects and becomes a trapped pocket of fluid known as a seroma. Left unchecked, a seroma can become infected, leading to an abscess.

“The Omega 3 coating provides an ideal bacteria breeding ground in which the bacteria cannot be eliminated by the body’s immune response, which allows the infection to proliferate,” alleges the C-QUR hernia mesh problems MDL.

In some cases, patients experienced severe allergic reactions to the Omega 3 coating.

The Omega 3 coating allegedly caused the mesh to roll or curl once it was inserted into the body. The deformed mesh allegedly increased the body’s inflammatory response and foreign body response to the product. These C-Qur hernia mesh problems inhibited healing and increased the risk of adhesions.

In other cases, the polypropylene mesh becomes exposed to the tissues after the Omega 3 coating degrades. The polypropylene mesh can adhere to organs and cause severe infections.

“The Omega 3 coating of the C-Qur mesh also failed to conform to the manufacturer’s specifications in terms of shelf-life, thickness, durability, quality, and biochemical properties,” alleges the C-QUR hernia mesh problems MDL.

The lawsuit also accuses Atrium of falsifying clinical study results and of diminishing adverse event reports in order to boost the C-Qur mesh’s perceived performance.

The C-Qur Hernia Mesh Problems Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-cv-00605-LM and is part of the Atrium Medical Corp. MDL, In re: Atrium Medical Corp. C-Qur Mesh Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2753, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.