The current issue of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices’ QuarterWatch report lists Yaz/Yasmin birth control pills as the drug with the second-highest number of adverse events reported in connection with lawsuits in 2011.
Quarterwatch says 8,354 Yaz/Yasmin-related cases were reported in 2011. That puts the contraceptive second only to anti-nausea drug Metoclopramide, which was the subject of 11,450 such reports.
The report says Yaz ...
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Of all medical devices, according to an article by the Consumers Union, cardiac devices dominate the list of reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of deaths and injuries.
The report spotlights IVC filters, which are placed in the vessel that returns blood from the lower body to the heart to prevent pulmonary embolism — a life-threatening condition caused by blood clots breaking loose and traveling to the ...
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A report in the Florida Sun Sentinel describes a new treatment for deep vein thrombosis, or a major blood clot. According to the article, DVT claims more lives each year than AIDS and car accidents combined.
The technology is called the EKOS Ultrasound Accelerated Thrombolysis machine, which uses ultrasound waves to distribute a powerful clot-busting medication throughout the blockage.
The report quotes Warren Swee, an interventional radiologist, as saying that EKOS treatment ...
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A drug developed as a cancer treatment proved to be an effective form of birth control for male mice, according to a Bloomberg report.
Scientists don’t intend to test that particular compound, called JQ1, in humans. But they hope their findings may eventually point the way toward male birth control.
The report quotes James Bradner, the senior author on the study and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, as saying: “These ...
continue reading...According to a report by ProPublica, medical devices have no unique code that would allow the government to track problems.
Although many manufacturers imprint a serial number on their devices, there’s no standardized system that would enable the government to easily monitor them. And critics say this gap in FDA oversight has contributed to numerous high-profile cases of medical devices malfunctioning in recent years – injuring and even killing patients.
For example, ...
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Inferior vena cava filters are linked to a higher death rate among the very people they’re supposed to help, according to a Reuters story.
The story cites a March presentation given at the annual scientific meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology.
Researchers reviewed medical data on more than eight million people with deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot in one of the deeper veins) and pulmonary embolism (a dislodged blood ...
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