According to a July 22, 2019, Law360 report, a trained expert in consumer behavior was called to the stand in week two of the Superior Court of California bench trial against Johnson & Johnson and the transvaginal mesh problems allegedly stemming from their products.

This professor emeritus–heralded from the University of California at Santa Cruz–took the witness stand in front of Judge Eddie Sturgeon in San Diego County.

Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson Co. subsidiary and maker of mesh designed to treat feminine issues such as stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP), was accused by the State of having lied to California citizens needful of treatments for these conditions and their physicians.

Specifically, the safety of two products—Tension-free Vaginal Tape and Prolift—were the subject of the legal inquiry. Anthony Pratkanis, as indicated by Law360, investigated the content of a couple of hundred of Ethicon’s outreach communications to potential patients, family members, and friends and analyzed them for content.

The retired professor claimed that the extensive body of communications utilized marketing techniques that have been effective in promoting the positives of the consumer products—any consumer products—while camouflaging transvaginal mesh problems.

Pratkanis alluded to the use of multiple catchphrases that, psychologically speaking, would naturally drive the human mind to believe the product could and would repair SUI and POP problems with little to no transvaginal mesh side effects.

What is Tension-free Vaginal Tape?

As indicated by Medlineplus.gov, tension-free vaginal tape is a product used to treat SUI—a condition in which the patient experiences urine leakage anytime there is pressure downward from the abdominal core muscles. This can happen during a coughing spell, while laughing, during a sudden sneeze, or when engaging in exercise.

Tension-free vaginal tape is surgically used after putting the patient under general or spinal anesthesia. After making three small incisions, one in the vagina and two above the pubic line on the belly, the tape is threaded through the vagina, behind the urethra, and up through the two abdominal cuts on either side. This gives added support to the urethra much like a sling.

According to Medline, tape may erode into normal tissues which surround it, such as the urethra and the vagina. Because of this, the tendency to leak urine can worsen and these and other tissues and organs can sustain damage. It is also possible for the body to treat the tape as foreign body or to have an allergic reaction to its presence.

What is Prolift?

Perhaps nothing illustrates transvaginal mesh problems more than Ethicon’s Prolift products. These products—initially introduced in 2005—were starting to accumulate an alarming number of adverse medical event reports with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as early as 2008. These reports grew exponentially until 2011 when the FDA required all marketed products of this nature to be tested and reviewed, halting all current production.

At this time, Ethicon made the decision to discontinue Prolift altogether. Prolift was created to treat POP, yet most of the complaints indicated the product had the tendency to contract and erode in the body, creating more difficult problems for the sufferer.

This Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuit is Case Number 37-2016-00017229-CU-MC-CTL, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego.