With any surgery come risks of side effects. However, a growing number of patients who have received a mesh implant to repair a hernia are wondering, “What is sepsis and is it a risk of hernia mesh surgery?”

What Is Sepsis?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says sepsis occurs when the body produces an extreme reaction to an infection. Sepsis occurs when an infection a person already has causes a chain reaction of events in the body that overwhelms the body’s systems.

What is sepsis and hernia mesh’s link? Surgical mesh has long been promoted as a safe and effective medical product that can improve the lives of people with hernias. But there’s mounting evidence indicating that defective hernia mesh is linked to infection that can lead to sepsis because contaminated mesh can introduce bacteria to the internal organs.

Sometimes sepsis is referred to as blood poisoning, but according to sepsis.org, blood poisoning refers to the presence of bacteria in the blood that actually can be precursor to more dangerous conditions, such as sepsis, septic shock, organ failure, and even death. The organization also indicates sepsis is the most expensive hospitalization experienced by patients in the U.S., or at least it was the most expensive prior to Covid-19. The hospital stay and skilled nursing required to care for septic patients is about $62 billion every year.

What Causes Sepsis?

Any time germs are allowed to enter the human body, an infection may develop. What causes sepsis is an untreated infection that overwhelms the immune system and causes a severe inflammatory response. The CDC says patients who are adults age 65 or older, have inhibited immune systems, fight chronic health conditions, and have experienced sepsis in the past are at a greater risk, as are children under the age of one year. Cancer, diabetes, kidney disease and lung disease are among the severe health conditions that can make a person more susceptible to sepsis.

What Happens If A Septic Infection Is Untreated?

A septic infection requires immediate medical attention. Unfortunately, many hernia mesh patients do not realize that the mesh is what causes sepsis in vulnerable patients.

By not realizing that hernia mesh can cause sepsis, these patients won’t know the symptoms to look for. A septic infection brings a high level of harmful bacteria into the bloodstream and can trigger inflammatory immune responses known as sepsis, according to an article published in the medical journal Cinical Microbiology and Infection.

What Are the Symptoms of Sepsis?

It is possible that defective or contaminated hernia mesh can cause sepsis. How would a patient know what is sepsis? The condition is characterized by general weakness, fever, chills, rapid breathing, rapid heartbeat, and a higher than normal white blood cell count. Severe sepsis could lead to organ malfunction and failure due to septic shock, which is a condition referring to dangerously low blood pressure.

How Does Defective Hernia Mesh Cause Sepsis?

An immune reaction caused by defective hernia mesh can lead to a consistent state of inflammation in the body. Over time, this can develop into an infection. In the event that a patient gets antibiotic treatments that address the overall symptoms, but don’t kill the underlying infection, the infection can return after the course of antibiotics is completed.

Removing the mesh surgically might be the only way to prevent long- term problems, such as recurrent sepsis.

What Does Mesh Migration or Shrinkage Have to Do with Sepsis?

Organs in the body can be perforated by mesh migration or mesh shrinkage. The bowels and intestines are the most likely sites to be perforated by defective hernia mesh. When the contents of these organs spill into the surrounding tissue, harmful bacteria is what causes sepsis to occur.

How Common Are Bowel Injuries During Hernia Repairs?

According to a review of a national surgery database, bowel injuries may occur in two percent of all ventral hernia surgical repairs.

The review by a team led by David M. Krpata, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic was summarized in an article on MEdge.com, but appeared in full in medical journal Surgery.

Krpata and fellow researchers looked at the surgical records of 5,916 patients who received a surgical ventral hernia repair between 2013 and 2017. They used data from the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative, which contains information from patient records of 180 surgeons.

What Did Krpata’s Research Find?

Among the patients who suffered injuries during surgery, 85 percent of them had small-bowel injuries. According to the analysis, injured patients were more likely to develop sepsis (2 percent) over patients who did not suffer such injuries, who had a 1 percent chance of sepsis.

Researchers said the patients who suffered accidental cuts into their bowels had significantly tough adhesions, were older, and also had been diagnosed with COPD.

According to Krpata, patients who incur inadvertent bowel injuries during their hernia repair surgery are not only at an increased risk of sepsis, but also of fistulas, further surgeries, readmissions to the hospital, and death.

When accidental bowel injuries were sustained during surgery, the surgeon was more apt to use a biologic mesh, absorbable mesh or uncoated synthetic mesh rather than a barrier-coated synthetic mesh that was designed for permanent placement.

Is a Septic Infection Deadly?

Chronic infections associated with defective hernia mesh, such as sepsis, can be life threatening as they can lead to septic shock. If you believe that you have been critically harmed after developing sepsis, an experienced product liability lawyer may be able to evaluate whether you have a case. Top Class Actions can help you identify the attorney you need.