Parietex ProGrip Hernia Mesh Lawsuit Claims Product Defects Caused Severe Pain After Implantation

Lawsuit alleges nerve blocks and other treatments failed to stop continuous pain purportedly caused by the design of the Parietex ProGrip hernia mesh.

Medtronic faces a Parietex ProGrip mesh lawsuit from a California man who says the device, which was implanted to address an inguinal hernia, has left him with continuous pain radiating from his groin through his hip.

Jorge Acosta filed the complaint (PDF) in California Superior Court for Los Angeles County on March 18. The defendant, Medtronic, had the case moved to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California the same day.

Designed for open inguinal hernia repair, the Parietex ProGrip mesh uses a self-fixating design that relies on a surface covered with polylactic acid microgrips and polyester microfilaments to adhere to flesh in a way similar to Velcro.

However, Medtronic, its Covidien subsidiary, and other medical device manufacturers have faced thousands of hernia mesh lawsuits over the past decade, alleging that Parietex ProGrip and similar products were defectively designed or manufactured, resulting in chronic pain, infections, adhesions, hernia recurrence and the need for revision surgery.

Parietex ProGrip Lawsuit

Like other plaintiffs, Acosta’s complaint argues that the polyester microfilaments used in the Parietex and Symbotex products can cause the mesh to degrade, shrink or cause inflammatory reactions once in the patient’s body.

According to his lawsuit, Acosta underwent a right inguinal hernia repair surgery in October 2024, during which the Parietex ProGrip hernia mesh was implanted.

“Immediately following the surgery and placement of the Mesh Device, Plaintiff experienced severe and continuous sharp, burning pain in his groin region radiating into his abdomen and right hip.”

– Jorge Acosta v. Medtronic Inc. et al

The complaint indicates that the pain lasted beyond what would normally be expected after the procedure, leading to multiple follow-up appointments and various treatments, including nerve blocks. However, none of the efforts have worked, and Acosta continues to suffer chronic, debilitating pain.

In August 2025, medical imaging was used to detect “abnormalities” around the Parietex mesh. It was not until then that Acosta and doctors could link the problems directly to the hernia mesh, the lawsuit states.

While the complaint indicates that neither Acosta nor his doctors were aware of the potential risks, it argues that Medtronic did know, and concealed those risks from the medical community. Those risks included the tendency for the polyester used in the mesh’s construction to degrade, catch the patients’ nerves in the microgrip material, shrink, contract or cause chronic inflammation. In addition, the lawsuit states that the problems have made it difficult or impossible to safely remove.

Acosta presents claims of design defect, failure to warn, manufacturing defect, negligence, breach of warranty and fraudulent concealment.

ProGrip Hernia Mesh Lawsuits

The lawsuit is one of more than 2,200 hernia mesh lawsuits filed against Medtronic and Covidien. Since June 2022, all Covidien hernia mesh lawsuits have been centralized in the District of Massachusetts before U.S. District Judge Pattie B. Saris for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Judge Saris has ordered the parties to prepare for a series of so-called “bellwether trials” meant to give the parties the opportunity to see how juries will respond to evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation. Such early test cases can help form the basis for settlement negotiations that could resolve the lawsuits without the need for thousands of time-consuming and expensive individual trials.

The first Covidien hernia mesh bellwether trial is currently scheduled to begin on July 13, 2026. However, if the bellwether process does not result in a global settlement or broader resolution, the court may eventually begin sending individual cases back to federal courts across the country for separate trials.

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