6,000 lawsuits revived against 3M over surgical infections from warming device in US
pharmafile | August 17, 2021 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |
A US federal appeals court has revived nearly 6,000 lawsuits against 3M Co alleging that its widely used device to keep patients warm during surgery caused infection.
The lawsuits have been revived because the Eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals said the Minnesota judge overseeing the litigation over 3M’s Bair Hugger device had wrongly excluded testimony from medical experts supporting the plaintiffs’ claims.
As reported in Reuters, Michael Sacchet, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said: “Thousands of individuals who were injured by this defective and dangerous device will now have their day in court.
“The Eighth Circuit unanimously ruled that the scientific evidence shows that 3M’s Bair Hugger can cause deep-joint infections in orthopedic surgeries.”
3M said in a statement: “We are confident in our case and will continue to vigorously defend ourselves.
“We are exploring all next steps and options to challenge the opinion.”
The Bair Hugger, which was invented in Minnesota, became a big seller in the $1.5 billion market for devices used to prevent hypothermia during surgery. Maintaining a normal temperature during surgery is thought to speed recovery times and enable the body to better ward off infection.
The device is used to decrease bleeding, improve recovery times, and decrease the risk of infections for patients during operations. It consists of a central unit, hose, and blanket.
The plaintiffs claimed that the device was defective because it transferred antibiotic-resistant bacteria into open surgical wounds, either by disrupting airflow in the operating room or through contamination of the device itself.
In 2019, US District Judge Joan Ericksen in Minneapolis tossed all the lawsuits as the allegations lacked scientific support.
But the 8th Circuit said that while there were “weaknesses” in the opinions of the plaintiffs’ experts, they were not “so fundamentally unsupported that they had to be excluded.”
Lilly Subbotin
