Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 8:23:43 GMT
Be wary of implants and other unproven medical devices.
Are Implanted Medical Devices Creating A 'Danger Within Us'?
January 17, 2018·3:10 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
Dave Davies
Fresh Air ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2018/01/20180117_fa_01.mp3?orgId=427869011&topicId=1135&d=2179&p=13&story=578562873&siteplayer=true&dl=1
Medical journalist Jeanne Lenzer warns that implanted medical devices are approved with far less scrutiny and testing than drugs. As a result, she says, some have caused harm and even death.
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross who's off this week. Our guest Jeanne Lenzer is a former physician's associate who worked for years in emergency rooms until medical studies showed a treatment she and others used for chest pain was actually causing deadly heart rhythms. Her search to understand what went wrong led her to a new career as an investigative medical journalist. Her new book is about the potential dangers of the millions of medical devices implanted in our bodies - artificial joints, cardiac stents, surgical mesh and pacemakers, among many others.
Lenzer says medical devices are approved with far less scrutiny than drugs, and many high-risk devices go to market without clinical trials. Lenzer writes about several devices that have proved problematic. And her book focuses in some detail on a treatment for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. An electrical device is implanted in the patient's body that sends regular impulses to the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain down through the neck, chest and abdomen.
A review of clinical studies by the Cochrane collaborative found the vagus nerve stimulator effective in reducing seizures for people whose epilepsy does not respond well to drugs or for whom surgery is not a good option. The Cochrane review also found that more studies needed on the effectiveness and side effects of VNS therapy. Lenzer says there's reason to believe the VNS device can cause deadly cardiac symptoms, and that it's been approved with virtually no research on how many patients implanted with VNS die.
Jeanne Lenzer is a longtime contributor to The BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic and other publications. Her new book is "The Danger Within Us."
Well, Jeanne Lenzer, welcome to FRESH AIR. Do we know how often medical treatments cause problems and harm people - essentially, the cure becoming the cause of injury?
listen to her answers: ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2018/01/20180117_fa_01.mp3?orgId=427869011&topicId=1135&d=2179&p=13&story=578562873&siteplayer=true&dl=1
Are Implanted Medical Devices Creating A 'Danger Within Us'?
January 17, 2018·3:10 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
Dave Davies
Fresh Air ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2018/01/20180117_fa_01.mp3?orgId=427869011&topicId=1135&d=2179&p=13&story=578562873&siteplayer=true&dl=1
Medical journalist Jeanne Lenzer warns that implanted medical devices are approved with far less scrutiny and testing than drugs. As a result, she says, some have caused harm and even death.
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross who's off this week. Our guest Jeanne Lenzer is a former physician's associate who worked for years in emergency rooms until medical studies showed a treatment she and others used for chest pain was actually causing deadly heart rhythms. Her search to understand what went wrong led her to a new career as an investigative medical journalist. Her new book is about the potential dangers of the millions of medical devices implanted in our bodies - artificial joints, cardiac stents, surgical mesh and pacemakers, among many others.
Lenzer says medical devices are approved with far less scrutiny than drugs, and many high-risk devices go to market without clinical trials. Lenzer writes about several devices that have proved problematic. And her book focuses in some detail on a treatment for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. An electrical device is implanted in the patient's body that sends regular impulses to the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain down through the neck, chest and abdomen.
A review of clinical studies by the Cochrane collaborative found the vagus nerve stimulator effective in reducing seizures for people whose epilepsy does not respond well to drugs or for whom surgery is not a good option. The Cochrane review also found that more studies needed on the effectiveness and side effects of VNS therapy. Lenzer says there's reason to believe the VNS device can cause deadly cardiac symptoms, and that it's been approved with virtually no research on how many patients implanted with VNS die.
Jeanne Lenzer is a longtime contributor to The BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic and other publications. Her new book is "The Danger Within Us."
Well, Jeanne Lenzer, welcome to FRESH AIR. Do we know how often medical treatments cause problems and harm people - essentially, the cure becoming the cause of injury?
listen to her answers: ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2018/01/20180117_fa_01.mp3?orgId=427869011&topicId=1135&d=2179&p=13&story=578562873&siteplayer=true&dl=1