Years ago there was a well-known surgeon who was very vocal about developing a registry to track the results of different mesh hernia repair devices. I followed what he was doing for quite a while.
Here are a couple of Topics I created in the past showing how he (and others I would guess) seem to have given up. The surgeons do not control the hernia repair field. They have moved on from mesh-based pain as a problem to be solved, to just learning to incorporate it in to their business model. The recent editorial comment in Hernia journal by Dr. Huerta seems to be about as strong of an opinion as there is out there, and it is very vague and will not drive any change.
Anyway, if you read Dr. Heniford’s comments over the years you can see how the constant failure to improve seems to wear people down. For whatever reason the corporations involved are happy to spend thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, paying their attorneys for lawsuit protection, but seem to be doing very little in studying the problem. Medtronic even introduced a new mesh product made from the material that Bard is being sued over. The revenue stream is well-established. They don’t want to disturb it. Pain litigation is just an item on the balance sheet.
Hernia mesh registry gaining traction?
Harpers Magazine report about hernia repairs and mesh: “In the Net”
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