In a message dated 3/15/2009 4:42:55 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, mark7@skynetbb.com writes:
At Sun, 15 Mar 2009, LOU COOPER wrote:
>Have you heard about the company
>called, COVIDEN,
>it has as a new product call SPRAY SHIELD it helps stop the formation
>of ADHESIONS
>its available to surgeons in EUROPE, SOUTH AFRICA and the EASTERN
COUNTRIES,
>but is not for use here in NORTH AMERICA. I just do not understand
>why we are left out,
Mark writes:
Covidien is the company that owns SprayGel and SprayShield. Sarah Wampler has been telling us that there is a clinical trial of SprayShield going on in the US, over at Dr. Redan's office in Florida. There may be more, too. Perhaps you can learn more by going to http://www.covidien.com and look and ask. I remember researching SprayGel, and learning the names of a few surgeons that were using it in trials.
We're not hearing much about adhesion prevention, are we? It's frustrating to have something so common and so debilitating, and yet have so little knowledge about it and what's being done to prevent it. It's like we're being ignored. My guess is that there are people working and thinking about it. But the news agencies don't like to report about it because it could make some people lose faith in their surgeon and refuse to sign the consent form for a much needed surgery, like colon cancer.
It's true that adhesion barriers add a risk of infection, but my feeling is that the risk is worth it. That's only a feeling based on nothing but my observations of human nature.
My guess why the US is slower to introduce risky products is because we are more risk averse than other countries. Many of us have a lawyer on "speed dial," so to speak. The patients who get put on adhesion prevention trials tend to be the worst case patients -- desperate people, like most of us on the forum. And when something goes wrong in an abdomen that was a mess to begin with -- "doink" -- the fingers start to point.
Really, what any trial needs is a way to measure success. Hopefully, the new fMRI technique will provide that. The alternative is to simply wait for patients to report back in 5 or 10 years. And of course, the only news you hear tends to be the bad news, which of course, skews the data toward the negative side. It's a horrible way to measure results. Its' no wonder adhesion prevention has been "under-represented" in medical research. Especially in North American society that really likes to be certain of things. We like 100 percent absolutes. For example, my minister told a story in church today about a colleague of his who caused controversy and almost lost his job at an evangelical college when he preached on why God is sometimes silent. (I'm sure even the most devout of us can relate to this feeling.) Americans like our pastors and our doctors to provide quick and easy answers, not help us deal with day to day uncertainties and complexities. It's plays better on television.
A true trial of an adhesion prevention technique would be one that recruits people from across the spectrum of adhesion "carriers," including first time surgical candidates, like people getting hysterectomies, gall bladder removals, and appendectomies. Whoever invents a risk-free adhesion prevention technique is going to make billions of dollars. I think it's going to happen, soon. We've had the new diagnosis codes in place for 7 years. That's opening up a lot of eyes. We're seeing a few articles written. Legislative bodies are passing resolutions. Anytime soon, there's going to be a bit of good news that will play well on network news program.
Yours,
Mark in Seattle
P.S. Did you know that people getting colonectomies to treat colon cancer have a 10 - 15 percent risk of being readmitted to the hospital with adhesion-related bowel obstruction? Did you know that colon cancer is the third most common type of cancer? Did you know that Ronald Reagan suffered from colon cancer, had surgery, and then had adhesion difficulties?
http://www.reaganlibrary.com/programs/lc/onbirthday.asp http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g40.htm http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/06/05/reagan.health.asp
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