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Canadian Woman Likens Transvaginal Mesh to a
Asprey suffers from a common complaint amongst middle-aged women who have borne children - incontinence and a prolapsed bladder, or Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP). Weakened abdominal and uterine muscles stemming from childbirth will often allow various organs such as the bladder to sag or prolapse against the uterus. Until recently, the common response has been surgery that involved reinforcing muscle tissue with a patient’s own tissue, known as a transvaginal sling. While effective, the procedure required invasive surgery.
Then along comes transvaginal mesh, which has its roots in hernia surgery. Rather than harvesting a patient’s own tissue and stitching a sling together in a more traditional TVT sling procedure, medical device manufacturers found a way for TVT sling surgery to involve less time and be less invasive with the use of TVT mesh.
Better still, the mesh can be inserted through a tube, then deployed at the appropriate site through the use of miniature cameras in an arthroscopic procedure. The upside was to be a faster recovery and healing.
However, as many plaintiffs connected to a transvaginal mesh lawsuit can attest, the mesh has been known to migrate away from the site, and even protrude into the vagina, causing immense pain and even affecting sexual congress between partners. Some women have found that mesh has become so intertwined with tissue and even organs, that in some cases it cannot be safely removed.
Asprey is no doubt holding hope that her mesh can be successfully removed in California and a more traditional vaginal sling employed - and her immense suffering can finally stop. For its part, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) no longer holds that transvaginal mesh is the safest response to POP, and has recommended against use of TVT mesh as a first response treatment.
Transvaginal mesh implant complications include the following:
Bowel, bladder, and blood vessel perforation during insertion
Vaginal scarring,
Dyspareunia (pain with sexual relations),
Fistulas and recurrence of prolapsed organs
Neuropathic pain
Mesh erosion into the vagina, bladder, intestines and uterus
Infection
Pelvic pain
Urinary problems, including recurrence of prolapse and/or incontinence
Development of urinary retention