Plaintiffs Patricia and Drennan Mayfield have filed a motion with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to centralize and consolidate all federally filed da Vinci Surgical System product liability lawsuits. The plaintiffs request the MDL be centralized to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi under federal Judge Carlton Wayne Reeves. They chose the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California as an alternate venue, as that is where da Vinci maker Intuitive Surgical is based.

There are currently four lawsuits filed against the da Vinci surgical device in district courts in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and New York, and experts expect that number to grow. These lawsuits  allege that design defects and improper training has caused patients to suffer internal injury, and that the manufacturer has failed to provide adequate warnings regarding the risks of complications with the da Vinci surgical device. More Plaintiffs Request da Vinci Surgical Robot Lawsuit Consolidation

Patricia Mayfield and her husband Drennan have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi against Intuitive Surgical claiming that design defects of the da Vinci robot caused her to suffer serious injuries to her bowel and vaginal cuff during a hysterectomy.

According to the lawsuit, just days after her hysterectomy, Mayfield had to return to the hospital and undergo treatments for injuries sustained during the procedure, which have left her with permanent injury and pain. More Lawsuit Mounting over Intuitive Surgical da Vinci Robot

Crystal Stevens, of Louisville, Kentucky, and her husband Eric have filed a lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court against Medtronic and Norton Hospital alleging that the Infuse bone graft has caused permanent and disabling complications.

According to the lawsuit, Stevens received the Infuse bone graft in 2006, and has since suffered substantial nerve damage from Infuse bone overgrowth, the Courier Journal reports. An attorney for Stevens says that she is most always confined to a flat or recline position, and is unable to do the most basic things. More Medtronic Infuse Lawsuit Filed in Kentucky

The national law firm of Parker Waichman LLP has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. and parent company Johnson & Johnson on behalf of a Michigan woman who allegedly suffered severe injuries from the metal-on-metal Pinnacle Hip Implant.

The lawsuit claims that the plaintiff had the Pinnacle hip device implanted on her left side in December 2006, and has since suffered adverse tissue reactions and pain. The lawsuit says that the Pinnacle device sheds high levels of toxic chromium and cobalt particles into the surrounding tissue and bloodstream which then accumulate and cause metallosis, pseudotumors, severe pain and discomfort as well as death of the local tissue and bone loss. More Another Lawsuit Filed Against DePuy over Pinnacle Hip Replacement device

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General has issued a subpoena to Allergan Inc., regarding its gastric banding device for treating obesity.

A study published in the Archives of Surgery medical journal found that nearly half of all gastric band patients had no weight loss and need the band removed after six years. More than 40 percent of all gastric band patients suffered long-term complications. More Allergan Issued Subpoena over Lap-Band

Out of the nearly 1,300 federally filed transvaginal mesh lawsuits, manufacturer Boston Scientific is named in about 170 of them, while manufactures Johnson & Johnson, C.R. Bard, and American Medical Systems have been named in the others. Boston Scientific is also facing over 100 lawsuits filed in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, under Judge Diane Kottmyer. All federally filed vaginal mesh lawsuits have been consolidated in U.S. District Court in Charleston, West Virginia under Judge Joseph R. Goodwin.

Many of the lawsuits question whether the device manufacturers informed the medical community about the potential risks of the implants, and accuse the makers of consistently withholding and under-reporting problems regarding the mesh products to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, consumers and their physicians. More Boston Scientific Hit With Hundreds of Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuits

Mary Bond, Illinois, has filed a lawsuit in Madison County Circuit Court against Wright Medical Technology Inc., and Wright Medical Group Inc alleging that her Profemur Total Hip System popped out of its socket.

According to the lawsuit, Bond was implanted with the total hip replacement system in 2007, which included the Wright Conserve Plus, a metal-on-metal ASR device which has been associated with a  number of lawsuits alleging premature failure and metal poisoning. The lawsuit says that the flexible neck of the device presents the opportunity for corrosion and failure, the Madison Record reports. <!–more–>

Bond says in the complaint that following the implantation of the Wright hip, she had pain and walked with a limp. In July 2011, the lawsuits says, the hip popped out of socket, forcing Bond to wear a brace 24-hours a day.  In August, Bond’s physician allegedly told her she would need revision surgery.

The lawsuit alleges Wright knew the device was defective and seeks compensatory and punitive damages, medical expenses, and court costs.

An attorney for Johnson & Johnson told U.S. District Judge David Katz during a West Palm Beach federal court hearing that both parties involved in the DePuy ASR hip replacement multidistrict litigation are “in agreement that we would like to have a bellwether trial.”

More than 4,200 federal lawsuits filed against DePuy were centralized in the multidistrict litigation. Bloomberg reports that another 2,000 lawsuits are pending in state courts, and that in 2010 DePuy recalled an estimated 93,000 ASR hip devices worldwide after studies showed that nearly 12 percent of the ASR systems failed within five years of implantation. Nearly 37,000 ASR devices were recalled from the US market. More Bellwether Trials Agreed on by Both Sides in DePuy ASR Hip Implant MDL

One of several lawsuits has been filed this month by the national law firm of Parker Waichman LLP in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against DePuy Orthopaedics regarding the metal-on-metal ASR hip replacement devices.  According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff received a DePuy ASR hip implant in October 2007, and was suffering from pain, and had elevated cobalt and chromium levels due to the hip device.

DePuy Orthopaedics parent company Johnson & Johnson issued a worldwide recall of the ASR Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System in 2010 after the National Joint Registry of England and Wales reported that 1 out of every 8 patients with the ASR systems had to undergo revision surgery within five years. At the time of the recall, more than 93,000 people around the world had an ASR system implanted.

In March of this year, the Lancet published a large study which found that patients with metal-on-metal hips have a 6.2 percent chance of needed a replacement within five years. The authors of the study recommended that “metal-on-metal stemmed articulations give poor implant survival compared with other options and should not be implanted.”

In February, a report published in the British Medical Journal suggested that all metal hip device manufacturers knew about the serious long-term health effects of the devices, but failed to warn consumers. The report warned that recipients of the metal-on-metal hip devices may have been exposed to dangerously high levels of toxic, and possibly cancer causing metal from the failing devices.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a 62-year-old Virginian, alleges that she was injured by the device, and seeks punitive and compensatory damages, as well as medical monitoring.

A federal class action filed in federal court in Sydney, Australia against Johnson & Johnson over the recalled DePuy ASR  metal-on-metal hip replacement devices has grown to include over 1,000 plaintiffs with a damages claim of over $200 million.

One of the plaintiffs, Stuart Cain, Brisbane, alleges that he had a DePuy Orthopaedics hip device implanted in 2007, and has since been forced to undergo three replacements of the original device due to femur damage caused by the metal residue from the device. More Australian Class Action Against J&J Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants Grows