ATTORNEYS HANDLING DEFECTIVE HERNIA PATCH CASES

Focusing on the Bard ® Composix ® Kugel ™ Mesh Patch Injury Cases

Our defective medical device attorneys are investigating potential lawsuits and legal claims related to the "Hernia Patch," which is the name of a medical device used by physicians to treat and repair hernias. A hernia is a bulging of internal organs or tissues, which protrude through an abnormal opening in the muscle wall. Hernias may occur in the abdomen or groin area or at the locus of a prior surgery or operation. One common method used by physicians to treat this problem involves the placement of a synthetic mesh device known as a "hernia patch" to repair the affected region. This procedure and operation is called a "hernioplasty". Since shortly after it's invention in 1998, hernia patches have been used throughout the United States and worldwide.

Investigation work by our team of our defective medical device lawyers have found evidence that the use of certain hernia patches have been known by the medical device industry to cause serious and adverse side effects including bowel perforation, bowel obstruction, chronic intestinal fistulae (abnormal passageways between the intestines and other organs), infection and possibly death. A defect associated with the patch could result in such injuries to an individual's internal organs, because a plastic component called a "memory recoil ring" could break. The potentially defective hernia patches out defective medical device attorneys have been focusing on include the Bard ® Composix ® Kugel ^TM Mesh Patch.

As a result of these findings, C.R. Bard Inc. and its subsidiary Davol Inc. issued a recall of the Kugel® patch (http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/recalls/recall-122205.html) back on December 22, 2005. The recall included various different at least six differently sized and shaped versions of the Bard ® Composix ® Kugel ^TM Mesh Patches. It is estimated that approximately 32,000 defective patches were used through the United States- it is these hernia patches our medical device attorneys are investigating.

On February 1, 2007, the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") issued a safety alert (http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2007/safety07.htm#Composix) stating that due the defect associated with the use or exposure to the Bard ® Composix ® Kugel ^TM Mesh Patch, there was a reasonable probability of serious adverse health consequences including death. The use of this patch has also been associated with such side effects as persistent abdominal pain, fever, tenderness at the site of the implant site and other unusual symptoms.

The medical device attorneys at Keefe Bartels have undertaken an investigation of the Bard ® Composix ® Kugel ^TM Mesh Patch and other types of hernia patches. If you or a loved have a Bard ® Composix ® Kugel ^TM Mesh Patch and have experienced any of the following symptoms, contact our offices today to see if we can help:

• bowel perforation
• bowel obstruction
• chronic intestinal fistulae (abnormal passageways between the intestines and other organs)
• infection
• death