Medtronic Recalls Implantable Drug Pump
February 5th, 2008 joshua
A Medtronic drug pump manufactured in the 20th Century is at the focus of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “class 1” recall.
The FDA advisory is the most serious the agency issues. The SynchroMed El pumps are supposed to deliver drugs to a specific region of the body, but these older pumps’ motors are stalling. This halts the delivery of a drug and could lead to serious injury or death.
More than 50,000 of these pumps are still being used. About 8,000 of them are the type that could experience motor failure the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. The pumps were made before September 1999 and are no longer used in America.
The affected models of the SynchroMed El implantable pump are: 8626-10, 8626L-10, 8626-18, 8626L-18, 8627-10, 8627L-10, 8627-18 and 8627L-18. The company phased out the models after the SynchroMed II pump was introduced in 2004.












