JAMA NOTES
9 April 2019 Volume 321 Number 14 pages 1338 – 1340
MESH IMPLANTS FOR WOMEN: SCANDAL OR STANDARD OF CARE?
by Rita Rubin
Ms Rubin is a writer for the Journal of the American Medical Association . This article appears on the JAMA page discussing Medical News and Perspectives. It concerns the widespread use of surgical interventions for the problem of stress urinary incontinence in women , also abbreviated as ‘SUI”. The surgical treatment of various problems using a mesh, has evidently been around for decades, not only for female issues. It is believed that this approach has been used for abdominal hernias since the 1950’s, for prolapses of the pelvic organs since the 70’s and in the 90’s via vaginal approach, for female urinary issues. This is what Ms Rubin discusses.
Comments by Dr. M.
This article caught my interest because the topic has been in the news lately particularly on the problems with the abdominal hernia. The company of Johnson and Johnson is alleged to have paid billions of dollars because of the use of the trans vaginal mesh and a company by the name of Endo International is alleged to have spent billions already litigating this problem.
I had hoped that this article would help to answer the questions raised but unfortunately it did not. There have been many successes and yet many failures. Some surgeons have stopped using this material. For the female afflicted with this issue life can be miserable. The only conclusion I reached at the end of this piece was that there is no one answer. Like ALWAYS treatment and decisions have to be made individually case by case. That has not changed and full disclosure of the risks and benefits should be SOP(Standard Operating Procedure). But then………what’s new?