Learned Intermediary Doctrine Bars Vaginal Mesh Action, Judge Rules

JACKSON, Miss. - The learned intermediary doctrine bars claims that the maker of vaginal surgical mesh failed to adequately warn of the risk of erosion because the treating physician was aware of this risk when he used the product, a Mississippi federal judge has ruled. Smith v. Johnson & Johnson, et al., No. 3:08-245 (S.D. Miss.).

On Aug. 31, Judge Henry T. Wingate of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show that the mention of mesh erosion as a complication in the product insert would have changed the doctor's course …