Boston Scientific Corp, after being faced with a growing number of surgical mesh lawsuits, is adding new safety warnings to its vaginal mesh products.

What is Surgical Mesh?

Surgical mesh, also known as vaginal mesh, pelvic mesh, or polypropylene mesh (PPM) is a device commonly used to treat Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP).

However, Boston Scientific Corp. and other surgical mesh manufacturers have been targeted in surgical mesh lawsuits claiming that the devices are defective and insufficiently tested, putting patients at great risk.

Surgical mesh devices were originally used to treat conditions like abdominal hernias, and were later transferred in usage to vaginal mesh implant surgery.

While the devices went through extensive testing for abdominal hernias, surgical mesh lawsuits claim the same kind of testing was not done before beginning to use the product for treating POP, calling into question the safety of this surgery.

There have been thousands of surgical mesh lawsuits filed against Boston Scientific, claiming that patients were injured due to infection or tissue erosion caused by the surgical mesh implants.

In response, Boston Scientific has added mesh erosion and ongoing pain to the list of warnings included on its surgical mesh products.

Labels will also indicate that vaginal mesh and bladder slings are to be considered permanent rather than temporary devices, and that removal of these devices is either complicated or impossible.

These label changes were announced via urgent advisory letters to doctors across the globe. Later, the changes were publicized.

A study published in the Obstetrics & Gynecology Journal covering 10 million female patients indicated the lifetime likelihood of needing surgery for either POP or urinary incontinence in women is about 20 percent by the time a woman has reached 80 years of age.

Despite the acknowledgment of some risk and the updates to these label warnings, the devices are not being recalled. According to the notice from Boston Scientific, none of the devices already implanted will be affected by this announcement.

By May 2016, 36,000 separate surgical mesh lawsuits had been filed against Boston Scientific Corp.

Plaintiffs in these surgical mesh lawsuits bring forth allegations of design and manufacturing defects, failure to warn, breach of express and implied warranties, fraud, violations of state consumer protection laws, and loss of consortium.

The company has reportedly entered into agreements and plans to settle around 11,000 of these surgical mesh lawsuits. Settlement agreements do not indicate an admission of liability or wrongdoing, but instead close the case with a monetary settlement.

Surgical Mesh Lawsuits

Surgical mesh complications may affect a large number of women, as hundreds of thousands of women in the U.S. have received these implants.

As information about the complications associated with surgical mesh becomes more widespread, an increasing number of women are filing lawsuits over their own complications.

Thousands of women have filed surgical mesh lawsuits so far against a variety of surgical mesh manufacturers. Some of these lawsuits have led to financial damages of millions of dollars.

If you or someone you know has experienced surgical mesh side effects such as mesh erosion, you may be able to file a surgical mesh lawsuit.