Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
NEW RESEARCH BY a Trinity College professor has concluded the failure rate in some surgical mesh treatments is ‘unacceptably high’ and further experiments should have been conducted to properly assess how these products behave in the body.
Professor of Materials Engineering David Taylor conducted a review of around 20 studies – involving thousands of patients – on vaginal mesh devices and associated complications. There has been controversy around these devices in several countries, including Ireland, as women have reported life-changing complications like recurrent infections and chronic pain.
Mesh devices, which are made of polypropylene – a type of plastic – are used in procedures to address pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, conditions women can suffer from after natural childbirth and in their later years. It is known now that the devices, most commonly used in a tape form, can move inside the body and become embedded in other organs or tissue.
“Many of these women have been condemned to a lifetime of pain and discomfort because the mesh has caused damage to surrounding organs and tissues, and it cannot be removed,” Taylor notes in his article on the topic, published in the Journal of Mechanical Behaviour of Biomedical Materials.
The use of vaginal mesh devices has been suspended in Ireland pending a review by the Chief Medical Officer.
This new academic review considered the findings of a variety of scientific and medical sources, from material test reports to clinical case studies.
“The use of surgical mesh to treat pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence seems to provide another example in which new products have been developed that expand the use of existing materials without conducting the necessary experiments to properly understand the material, and how it will react in its new application,” Taylor said.
Surgical mesh has been used for over 50 years in the repair of hernias and surgical sutures are made from the same type of material. But it is only since the 90s that medical companies expanded the use of this material to products for the pelvic region.
Very severe consequences can result from mesh erosion, when the mesh material damages the surrounding tissues. The prolapse products caused mesh erosion in over 10% of cases, rising to almost 30% in some studies, which I concluded was unacceptably high.
In the case of urinary incontinence products, erosion occurs less often, around 2% to 3%, so my opinion is that patients should be given more information to allow them to make an informed decision about the risks involved.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Taylor said even with a 3% complication rate for stress incontinence procedures, there should be a discussion around “what is acceptable risk”.
“Take for example different products for hip replacements. There is an understanding that, if in ten years, failure rates are less than 10%, that’s considered to be reasonable. It’s not nice if it fails and you are in pain and have to get another operation to replace it again,” he explained.
“With mesh, a person considering this urinary incontinence procedure could be told it’s only a 2% failure rate and think that’s fine. But what happens if the risk is that they could be in pain the rest of their lives?”
He said his main message is that patients need to be given all of the information before they have these procedures so that they can make an informed decision.
In January, Taylor took part in a presentation at Leinster House to brief politicians about the research around these devices. He said some women only had slight incontinence problems before they had the procedure and they now have life-changing complications.
“If they were told beforehand of the potential consequences, they might have felt that actually they could live with it for a while, maybe not take the risk and look at surgery later down the line if it got worse.”
Professor Taylor said he will be continuing his research in this area and he is now hoping to establish the reason the devices are failing – something he said he was not able to find in any of the studies he looked at.
“Lots of the clinical studies involved a patient with a problem, so the surgeon took out the mesh and there was no further follow-up to investigate why it happened, the mesh just went in the bin.”
He said it is possible these devices are reacting differently in the pelvic area because it has a different chemical environment.
“We have one piece from a patient and we are hoping to get more so we can do tests to compare them to new pieces of mesh and find out if they are broken and how they came to be.”
Treatment pathways
In July this year, Minister for Health Simon Harris asked the Chief Medical Officer to review the use of these devices here.
Documents released to TheJournal.ie through a Freedom of Information Request revealed some of the initial findings of this review. They include:
The review also found that no clinicians have reported complications to the Health Products Regulatory Authority.
A representative group for surgeons working in this area said members will not have submitted reports as the rate of serious complications they were seeing among their patients was not higher than the expected rate deduced from prior studies.
Dr Susmita Sarma, president of the Continence Foundation of Ireland said their “evidence based” position on the use of these procedures is that “alternative surgical treatments, which date back 60 years, are more invasive procedures associated with more complications and are less effective”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The farmer does the hardest job…….and gets the least………not even enough to break even.
@John Joe Bridie: now the beef processor workers are getting paid the least, nothing at all
@Vocal Outrage: same as the farmers then
@Ole dan tucker: maybe ABP could give their workers some of the 170ml profit they made last year seeing as they refuse to pay the farmers as fair price.
Their local one to me used to employ lots of Irish. Now its mostly eastern European as they don’t have to pay them as much.
Owner is based in Luxembourg so the govt sees very little of it either
@John Joe Bridie:
In any other country there would be a parliamentary enquiry to find out where the money is going.
@m flynsk: if this was France. Either factories would be burned to the ground or CEO’s taken hostage
@m flynsk: Can’t happen here. Too many politicians deep, deep in the pocket of——You know who!!!
@m flynsk: why should there be.. it’s a private business. They made the investments they reap the profits..that’s how a business works..its not a charity. The farmers have cut off their own income and now expect others to suffer despite an agreement being reached.
@John Joe Bridie: its how all protesting in the future should be done…
@Ole dan tucker: and the hauliers.
@Ole dan tucker: no, cheap comment there from yourself. The farmers at least get some return, the workers have now been made unemployed by farmers actions despite 2 agreements having been reached at this stage. The farmers actions are no longer legitimate protest but intimidation and blackmail at this point
@Paul Murphy: Where do you think the meat processors get their “raw material” from Paul?
@Vocal Outrage: ya but their not working
@David Corrigan: let me see.. the beef tree
@Vocal Outrage: disagree, at least the workers are not losing money, they are not earning temporarily but they are not losing money to provide raw material to the processor like the farmers have been for some time, farmers are at breaking point and their frustration has been well and truly unleashed now, would these jobs even exist but for the farmers?
@Paul Murphy: tug your forelock a bit harder
@Paul Murphy: rubbish. The farmer deserves a decent profit. The workers should have a decent wage. The investor takes a smaller profit…SIMPLES
@Vocal Outrage: Agreements were reached with who? The beef plan movement? The IFA? The normal process for solving trade disputes are their respective represenitives trash out a deal and put it to the members in a vote, be they a union or employer groups. Did this happen with the farmers of Ireland?
@Mary Fitzsimons: can’t..it hurts my sunburn as I relax here in the sun on the back of my ill gotten gains through hard work.
@Patricia Mcnamara: That sensible and proven but the FFG Neoliberal way where business plans must see fortunes made quickly with those do the least work taking the lion’s share.
@Patricia Mcnamara: so the farmer is trying to put the processor out of business and there is no longer a requirement for the basic product. The processor has conceded.. some of the farmers are content with the concession but others still want more…sounds a bit like animal farm where the farmers want to be rich off some elses back while the workers processing the meat are the ones losing out. All men not created equally and some will get rich on others efforts…fact..it will never change
@Vocal Outrage: If the majority agrees to stand down this prostests then the minority will have to accept this and it will be jail down the road if it goes for much longer. You have workers let go because of this protest these workers men and women have morgage and other bills to pay.The have made their protest its time for the factories to start up again.
@Alan Scott: these workers have social welfare to see them through, a luxury the farmers don’t. They are temporarily laid off many times during the year when it suits the processors but that surprisingly doesn’t make the media
@Paul Murphy: the factory owner is the greedy pig not the farmer or the worker. If STRIKE is the only way then STRIKE to the bitter end.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: yes, the first one with the beef plan movement and the second with both of them last weekend. It doesn’t always go to a vote before pickets are lifted, in fact, the norm would be to lift pickets pending the ballot.
Initially I supported the farmers, but their intransigence and expectation that only the other side should compromise has changed my view on that. How do you negotiate with a group that refuses to engage in collective bargaining, is prepared to screw colleagues and fundamentally engages in blackmail rather than negotiations?
@great gael of Eire: . That type of talk is criminal . Look at what is happening in Cavan/Monaghan/Fermanagh in Quinn case. Do you really think that tjuggery is the way forward. We have moved on from that. Please stop this intimidatory talk.
There’s no such thing as a poor farmer in Ireland. A lot of them will be sorry in the long run because their actions won’t be forgotten.
@Lalachio Ballbag: you clearly haven’t a clue what you’re talking about
@Lalachio Ballbag: There’s plenty of poor farmers what makes you think otherwise?
@John Lally: haha oh you’re serious. Maybe head out to west and north west…. have a look at the “ranches” out there for starters!!!!!
@Lalachio Ballbag: “There’s no such thing as a poor farmer in Ireland.”
You’re talking out your rear end Ballbag.
@sinead foley-coleman: farms Sinead. We call them farms, look later like you’re at the wrong rodeo
@Garreth Mc Mahon: I take it you missed the “” Garreth lol
@sinead foley-coleman: actually I don’t know where later came from
@sinead foley-coleman: actually I don’t know where later came from
@sinead foley-coleman: actually I don’t know where later came from
@sinead foley-coleman: actually I don’t know where later came from :-)
@Lalachio Ballbag: In all walks of life there are rich and poor . Its no different in the farmer community take it from me there are some very poor farmers.
@SilexFlint: if the farmers are poor they are in the wrong business. If I wasn’t making money in my business I’d shut it down and go find work elsewhere. It seems that farmers have grants and subsidies to prop up there business which ultimately is funded by Mr & Mrs Tax payer. So maybe the poor farmers need to look at there business model and asses if it’s loss making and if so move on. I understand that some farms are in the family centuries or decades but that’s sentimental.
Can the cop’s not move these people out of the way to let the workers in/out? Ridiculous that the workers are losing their jobs for any period of time.
@K W: you mean like the farmers being ripped off for doing their job? I do agree it’s unfair on the workers, but if these factories paid the farmers fairly in the first place it wouldn’t have come to this
@Breda Jennings: so tough shit on the workers?
@K W: blame the employers, not the suppliers. What other industry would supply produce to a factory at a loss?
@John Lally: only the poor farmer by the looks of it.
@John Lally: don’t supply it so…change to dairy…or tillage…like every business, no demand, no profit etc then you need to change and adapt.
@K W: I suggest workers should also be out on the pickets given the pittance they are paid. Factories are laying workers off to force farmers off the picket Wouldn’t it be interesting if the workers downed tools and joined forces with the farmers… maybe then we’d see the factories coming back into line and paying all a fair slice of their very large profits. At the minute it’s divide and conquer tactics imo
@Breda Jennings: they are breaking the law. It would be lawless if we all behaved like this.
@SFNutters: plenty of demand plenty of profit not fairly distributed
@SFNutters: Easy say change the type of farming. Tillage needs good land, dairy needs a huge financial investment for equipment. Farmers can only borrow on what they make, not the asset they have. Your comment is like telling a teacher who cant get work to change and become a heart surgeon!
@Brian O’Leary: FG have recently shown us all how to break the law.
@K W: does you not realise it’s the farmers are keeping them in their jobs no farmers no factories
@Breda Jennings: what’s fairly? If your suggesting price fixing, that’s hardly the right action
@Geraldine Fenton: does YOU not realize they are all PAYE workers, contributing week after week, year after year to the single farm payment, cheap green diesel, low road tax, 90% inheritance tax breaks, tax-free horse sales, no NCT or emissions testing etc… you might want to re-think who depends on who.
@SFNutters: there is a demand for the product – what’s missing is competition to buy/process the product. Hence the below cost price being offered to farmer, hence the protests. It isn’t that difficult to follow……
@Dave Doyle: yawn Dave, fu$#ing yawn.
Beef farmers all over the world are slowly going out of business. I’ve watched a good few videos from farmers in different countries. The model of the farmers rearing their animals and selling them to corporations who make massive profits and refuse to pay a fair price is going to take out small farmers.
The small farmer will care and look after their animals. The factory farms won’t be so kind. We already see this in effect in Irish pig farms where they are caged up all day. Same with most of the factory chicken farms. These farms are farmer and the processor.
People would be horrified if they knew where there cheap food originated from. We need to support small family farms who will look after their animals and the environment. These are the people protesting at the gates of these factories. We need to support them in their protest to get a fair price and to hand the farms down to the children. Otherwise we will have scandal after scandal from these big factory farms. Ie horse meat scandal….
@great gael of Eire: Can they not band up together like 3-4 of them and make small slaughterhouse and sell locally?
The farmers don’t care what other livelihoods they ruin with their greed.
@Mike Conway: *processors
@Mike Conway: You expect beef farmers to work for a loss? If it’s greedy to expect to profit from your labour and produce then we are all greedy so and sos.
If the industry carries on with the status quo those workers will end up losing their jobs permanently and the only beef on offer will be of poor quality and with a much higher carbon footprint.
@Will: No ones forcing them to do it. If they don’t like it move on to something else and let the farmers who do want to sell, sell and the workers in the plants who do want to work, work. The national herd size in ireland has doubled in the last decade. they’ve flooded the market with beef which causes the prize to go down and they’ve all done it becuase they want to be one of the rich farmers.
@Darren Byrne: ” The prize to go down”——-I like that!
If Famers stop producing beef and go into another area of agriculture, the factories will close except for a few who would be processing imports.
Food for thought, excuse the pun. Talking to a lot of farmers and a kepak rep this week. The one thing they said was, nobody knows who these people are on the blockades. They aren’t farmers. Also, most farmers are happy with the prices, it’s a very very small minority that are producing poor quality product that can’t get a good price that are unhappy. They haven’t upped their own game. They buy cheap calf’s and expect the premium prices 20 months down the road. Like all walks of life, there is good and bad in every trade. These bad farmers can’t accept it. What’s on these blockades is paid bullies. End it now. You’re a disgrace whoever you are.
@Martin McFly: You my man are a genius——With a big capitol B!!
@Martin McFly: what part of the city are you from?
Support the Farmers all the way.
Many publications have scapegoated the farmers with biased delivery of information to their listeners. The fact that the broadcasting authority has no rules around this shows its incapacity and highlights the need for more legislation to tackle rouge publication like that.The voices of farmers get an article collectively for their case, while any individual on the other side have been gave headlines with individual articles.
‘Long term damage’ to an industry taking so much a percentage of the profits that the farming business has became nonviable, while beef has never sold as much and framing practices have only improved.
There has been no questioning of the very fact that these factories can treat their employees in this way, simply turfing them out when business is low!
There has been no outcry at a culture of having the farmer penalized for giving their cattle a decent amount of years on the planet.
There is little or no outcry from our press that a farmer can not see the slaughtering and butchering process to see if these factories are not paying fair and that their animals are being treated with respect.
It stinks!
It’s time to take the greedy factories and supermarkets out of the food chain. Open book cost plus pricing and no below cost selling. Ban alcohol from supermarket chains. Regulate to encourage smaller abattoirs and butchers to encourage them to sell locally sourced produce.
Its about time humanity stopped eating animals. We are destroying the our environment by this excessive consumption on meat. The sooner the EU gets rid of farm subsidies and taxes meat consumption the better.
There must be a role here for a mr fixit
Mediator
John Delaney comes to mind or pat hickey or maybe Michael O’Leary
Since the journal keeps deleting my comments, I’ll keep posting them :) after a prolonged analysis of the content and comments it can only be deduced that the journal is nothing more than a bad entertainment site. Copying articles from other sites, shockingly poor literacy standards and a hotbed for trolls
@Sonic: is this your first time here?! This place exists so trolls can thrive.
Its about time humanity stopped eating animals. We are destroying the our environment by this excessive consumption on meat. The sooner the EU gets rid of farm subsidies and taxes meat consumption the better.
Good helps climate change
The problem I have with it is that the supermarkets will just get suppliers from elsewhere. I like to buy Irish produce but I might not have much choice soon.
Build a bridge get over it
have your say