Product Liability Lawyer Blog

March 31, 2015

New Drug Therapy Aims to Reduce Knee Replacement Recovery Time

Even a successful total knee replacement surgery involves a long and painful post-operative recovery period. However, according to a recent feature from Med Page Today, this might not always be the case.

This article discusses a new medical protocol designed to do away with motor nerve blocks and reduce the use of opioid (narcotic) painkillers following surgery. With traditional protocols, doctors gave patients a broad-spectrum analgesic agent before surgery. This included a nerve block consisting of ropivacaine, as well as narcotic pain control drugs such as OyxContin, in patients who are younger than 80 years of age. In older patients, pregabalin was used along with aspirin, due to complications opioids can cause to elderly patients. During surgery, doctors administer additional medications, including tranexamic acid, multiple times.

Doctors will then administer a morphine-based pain killer through an IV. A femoral nerve catheter is used as nerve block and continued the day following surgery, along with a whole host of other medications.
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March 29, 2015

Total Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery Complications Worse for Men

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

According to a recent news article from Medical News Today, men suffer more complications resulting from total hip and knee replacement surgery than woman who undergo the same procedure. Both surgeries are used in patients with painful joint arthritis and joint deterioration.

While, in some cases, a patient has suffered an acute trauma to the knee or hip where the joint is actually broken, most patients get the respective surgeries after living for years with chronic pain, and it gets to a point where they can no longer deal with the discomfort.

Researchers discovered how men fair worse after having surgery than women. First, the study noted, while men typically have total hip replacement or total knee replacement at an earlier age than women, they are more likely to not only have increased pain, but need second or subsequent surgeries to address the complications.

The study examined data from patients who had total joint replacement procedures at a single hospital between 2002 and 2009. This included almost 100,000 patients, which gives us an idea of the vast number of people having total hip and total knee replacements each year. The numbers of women having the procedures was slightly higher than men, but the numbers where close to being balanced. The numbers also reflected an average age of female patients being 70 and the average age of male patients being 65, which is standard.

When examining post-operative data, researchers found men were around 15 percent more likely to go to the emergency room for joint replacement complications than women within a month following surgery. Men were also more likely to have a heart attack following surgery than women, and men were 50 percent more likely to need a second surgery within two years to deal with the complications.
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March 28, 2015

Book v. Voma Tire Corporation: Defective Products Litigation

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Book v. Voma Tire Corp., a case from the Supreme Court of Iowa, involved a lawsuit brought by the mother of a teen employee of an automotivbe shop. The shop, owned by teen’s father, purchased four tires from an Iowa retailer, and the tires were manufactured in China.

In 2009, plaintiff’s son was working part time at the service shop through an apprenticeship program administered by his high school. The shop agreed to install four new tires on a customer’s horse trailer. The shop purchased the new tires from the Iowa retailer and began installing them on customer’s horse trailer. The teens’ father/shop owner attempted to set a 16.5″ inch tire on an older model 16″ rim. According to court records, this was a common mistake in the auto service industry.

The father was distracted when the telephone rang and left the tire mounted on the wheel, but it was not yet fully inflated. When plaintiff’s son and fellow employee walked into the shop, they began to air up the tire without checking with the father. The tire exploded and severely injured plaintiff’s son. He was blinded in one eye, and lost part of his jaw. He also lost most of his sense of taste and smell as result of the tire explosion. He has undergone extensive rehabilitation and seen dozens of specialists to treat his injuries.
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March 26, 2015

A Look at the Blood Thinner Marketing Blitz

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

These days it is nearly impossible to watch television without seeing commercials for one of three drugs, which are part of a new group of blood thinning medications known as New Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs). This relatively new class of drugs includes big names like Xarelto, Eliquis, and Pradaxa. Xarelto makers, for example, have hired golf legend Arnold Palmer and actor Kevin Nealon to promote their product.

All three of these medications offer what their respective makers claims is a better alternative to long used blood thinner, Warfarin. Patients who suffer from a medical condition known as atrial fibrillation or “Afib” need to take a blood thinning medication, because they are at higher risk of developing blood clots. When a blood clot forms, it can block an artery, causing stroke and heart disease. It can also break free from a vein and travel to the lungs, where it can puncture the tissue. This is a serious and often deadly condition known as a pulmonary embolism (PM).

Warfarin is generally safe and effective when a doctor can frequently monitor a patient’s dosage. If the dosage is off, serious bleeding disorders can occur. This means a patient will have to undergo frequent blood tests and have scheduled follow up visits with their doctor. A patient must also closely watch his or her diet, because certain foods can change the rate at which Warfarin is absorbed. These new drugs, like Xarelto, are supposed to be as effective as Warfarin without the need to constantly monitor the patient’s dosage.
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March 25, 2015

FDA Suspects 3 Deaths Related to Contaminated Ice Cream

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

All our lives, we have been cautioned against buying any food or drug product when the packaging has already been opened or the tamperproof seal has been broken. These fears are based upon the fear someone could have tampered with a product and put it back on store shelves. However, as we have seen time and time again, it is often problems in the manufacturing process that leads to contaminated foods finding their way to store shelves.

According to a recent news release from the Food Poisoning Bulletin, three have died, and others have become extremely ill after what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suspect was contaminated ice cream. Authorities say a very rare strain of listeria was found in victims, and that strain was traced back and matched to a strain of listeria in an ice cream novelty-making machine at a Blue Bell production facility in Texas. Blue Bell is a large ice cream manufacturer with distribution throughout the United States.

When doctors determined these victims had listeria, a food history was taken. All patients reported to have recently eaten ice cream products from Blue Bell. Months into this wave of illness, state health workers in South Carolina were conducting random safety inspections of Blue Bell ice cream products and found this rare strain of listeria. They contacted Texas officials, who inspected the factory and found a machine designed to scoop ice cream for use in single serve products was responsible for the contamination. In total, there were four extremely rare strains of listeria found on the machine.
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March 22, 2015

Graco to Pay $10 Million to Settle Defective Car Seat Claims

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

According to a recent news report from the New York Times, Graco has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit alleging defendant took too long to settle claims that it failed to act quickly to recall 4 million defective car seats.

Plaintiffs alleged defendant’s car seats were manufactured with a defective buckle, making it hard for first responders and parents to free a child in the event of an emergency, and federal regulators confirmed the problem.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated defendant would pay $3 million to plaintiffs and spend an additional $7 million to develop safety programs to prevent future injuries to children. Defendant was not required to accept liability as part of the settlement and has continued to allege any problem with the buckles was only caused by children spilling food and beverages on them.
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March 21, 2015

Class Action Lawsuit: Many California Wines Contain Arsenic

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

California is well known for its burgeoning wine industry. Many enjoy drinking California wines at home and in local restaurants, while others travel to the region’s Napa Valley for vineyard tours.

While all wine may contain trace amounts of hazardous chemicals, a recent class action lawsuit alleges many California wines contain levels of arsenic hundreds of times over the legal limits.

According to a recent news article from The Independent, more than 1,300 bottles of wine were sent for testing at independent labs, and it was determined more than 25 percent of the bottles contained higher arsenic levels than legally allowed in water. The reason water was used as a baseline is because water is the only liquid U. S. law requires to be tested for arsenic. Some of these wine bottles reportedly contained five times the legal limit of arsenic in water.
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March 17, 2015

New FDA Warnings About Testosterone Replacement Drugs

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

According to a recent news article from Fox, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued new warnings about the dangers of testosterone replacement therapy drugs.

These testosterone replacement therapy drugs, which now come in the form of injections, oral tablets, creams, gels, and even a deodorant stick, have been marketed as a treatment for male weight gain, muscle loss, fatigue, mild depression, erectile dysfunction, loss of libido, and other symptoms of normal male aging. One doctor featured in this news story said there has been essentially “knee jerk” reaction to these signs of aging to prescribe testosterone replacement therapy drugs.

This recent push for TRT is not supported by scientific research and seems to be completely driven by marketing claims of large drug companies. Some in the medical profession believe that even if testosterone replacement therapy doesn’t work, it won’t harm anyone who takes it. According to the FDA, this is not necessarily true.
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March 15, 2015

Robotic Hip Replacement Assistance May Help Patients

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Hip replacement surgery is a major operation, despite how common it has become for orthopedic surgeons. When a patient decides to undergo implantation of artificial hip, he or she can expect a lot of pain following the surgery, a lengthy recovery time, and must be careful not to disturb the healing process. This is true when everything goes correctly.

One of the problems surgeons face is an artificial hip must be implanted in a very precise location. If it is off even by a few millimeters, the device may fail, and patient will need another operation to correct the problem. To aid in the implantation process, surgeons are now testing a new robotic surgery system that allows them to implant the device in the exact location and know if their placement is off by even the slightest degree. According to a recent article from TribLive, these new surgical robots, which cost $800,000 each, will first generate a map calculating the best location for proper alignment.

After the system creates a placement map, it assists surgeons during implantation, as it gives off an audible alarm is placement is off by even half a millimeter. This will greatly increase the chances of the hip being anchored properly, which in turn will decrease pain and suffering and recovery time.
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March 14, 2015

Pradaxa Makers Banking on New Antidote to Win Sales War with Warfarin

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Patients who have a serious health condition known as atrial fibrillation (Afib) are required to take blood-thinning medications to prevent stroke, heart disease, pulmonary embolism (PE) and other serious clotting disorders. Traditionally, this means taking Warfarin. Warfarin is a long existing blood thinning medication now available in generic form.

While Warfarin is known to be effective, it does require frequent monitoring of a patient’s blood, so doctors can make dosage changes when necessary. If the dosage is not monitored constantly, they may suffer serious and potentially fatal adverse reactions. Patients must also closely monitor their diets, because certain foods can affect how Warfarin is absorbed in the body, which in turn can affect dosage rates.
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