AlloDerm Mesh Lawyers to Meet with N.J. Judge as Lawsuits Mount

Parties involved in the New Jersey state court AlloDerm lawsuits are scheduled to meet tomorrow with the judge that is presiding over the litigation, as the number of new complaints filed by individuals who have experienced painful complications from the hernia patch continues to increase at a fast pace.

All product liability lawsuits filed against LifeCell Corporation in New Jersey have been centralized for “mass tort” treatment in the Superior Court for Middlesex County, as part of a Multi-County Litigation (MCL).

A case management conference is scheduled for September 20 at 10:00 a.m. for lawyers involved in the cases to meet with the Judge Jessica Mayer, who is presiding over the litigation.

According to a case list (PDF) posted by the court on September 18, there are at least 225 lawsuits now included in the Alloderm MCL, with the first case filed in May 2011. However, the litigation has grown at a particularly fast pace in recent weeks, with nearly a quarter of the current case load having been filed over the past 45 days.

All of the lawsuits involve similar allegations brought by individuals who experienced serious and painful problems after Alloderm was used for hernia repair or abdominal reconstructive surgery.

Originally introduced in the early 1990s, the AlloDerm Regenerative Tissue Matrix is a skin graft product that is manufactured from tissue harvested from cadavers, which is stripped of the original cells to ensure that recipients do not reject it.

While AlloDerm was originally introduced by LifeCell Corporation for use with burn victims during plastic surgery and for dental procedures, the manufacturer allegedly promoted the patch for hernia surgery and abdominal repairs without adequately researching the application or warning about the serious risk of complications that may develop.

The lawsuits over Alloderm allege that the manufacturers failed to provide proper instructions for physicians about the need to pre-stretch the mesh before using it during hernia repair, to prevent it from expanding, thinning, sagging and bunching up over time. This can lead to additional problems after surgery, including abdominal pain, deformity and recurrence of the hernia.

According to allegations raised in many of the complaints, LifeCell knew or should have known as early as 1994 that AlloDerm was unfit and unsuitable for hernia repair or abdominal surgery, but they continued to market the product for such use.

Alloderm was the first commercial product sold by LifeCell, and grew to generate more than $167 million in revenue by 2007. It has been used in more than one million grafts and implants. However, LifeCell no longer markets Alloderm for hernia repair, now promoting the use of Strattice Reconstructive Tissue Matrix, a surgical mesh made using pig skin.