June 11th, 2008 amy
The Medtronic defibrillator defective Sprint Fidelis leads are still malfunctioning, as illustrated by a moving story done by ABC News of a six-year-old girl who watched in horror as her mommy’s defibrillator shocked her heart a total of 31 times in the span of a few minutes.
Medtronic, the company that makes the device used by […]
June 11th, 2008 joshua
The Food and Drug Administration’s chief scientist asked the Science Board chair to establish a subcommittee to investigate bisphenol A in plastics.
The committee will hold a public meeting on the matter, combine those findings with an FDA Task Force report on the subject and report to regulation heads in the fall.
In April of this year, […]
June 11th, 2008 joshua
A St. Louis University professor says too many patients are receiving implantable cardiac devices.
In a recent study, Paul Hauptman, M.D., a professor of internal medicine at St. Louis Univ. says patients too ill to receive any benefit from these devices are needlessly receiving them.
He said the devices shouldn’t be used in “rescue therapy” for […]
June 10th, 2008 amy
Eleven deaths and 86 cases of harmful side effects this year have been linked to use of medical devices containing heparin, the FDA reports.
Most of the cases involved heparin used to clean intravenous lines, said Karen Riley, a Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman, in a June 5 interview. Bloomberg News reports that the heparin […]
June 6th, 2008 amy
Recalled Kugel Hernia Patches have been implanted at Sentara Hospitals in seven patients at two hospitals, MyFox Hampton Roads reports. Four patients were at Virginia Beach General, three at Sentara Leigh in Norfolk. Sentara’s Vice President Of Medical Affairs Dr. Tom Thames says, “It happened as a result of human error.”
Thames also blames the way […]
June 6th, 2008 joshua
An Oregon Health and Science University professor has published an editorial in The Seattle Times which makes an argument for the medical device industry to undergo the same - albeit already under-scrutinized - federal approval process for its new products the same a prescription drug company would.
Dr. Richard Geyo cites the Medtronic leads used in […]
June 5th, 2008 joshua
Patients who have an implanted heart defibrillator need more follow-up care, an international team of researchers has determined.
Associated Press reports guidelines are being established to deal with the nearly 2 million patients worldwide with some sort of implanted heart device, like a pacemaker or defibrillator.
Since their use has rapidly increased in recent years, the reports […]
June 4th, 2008 joshua
The FDA is encouraging patients, care givers and health professionals to switch to hydrofluoroalkane(HFA)-propelled inhalers instead of using CFC-propelled devices. The latter will not be available in America by the beginning of next year.
The CFC inhalers are being phased out from use because chlorofluorocarbons are harmful to the ozone layer and contribute to environmental degradation. […]
