Ethicon Inc. Prevails in Absorbable Hemostat Suit

NEW ORLEANS - The learned intermediary doctrine defeats a claim that Ethicon Inc. failed to warn doctors that its absorbable hemostat could cause foreign body reactions, a Louisiana federal judge has ruled. Dykes v. Johnson & Johnson, et al., No. 09-5909 (E.D. La.).

On May 20, Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana referred to the surgeon's testimony that the product insert indicates a warning of foreign body reactions.

DeLaunda Dykes underwent a hysterectomy during which her surgeon, Dr. Katherine Williams, used Ethicon Surgicel Fibrillar Absorbable Hemostat to reduce the risk …