Mesh implants – should they still be happening?
Patients across the country have suffered complications from plastic mesh implants. Here, Mark Smith explains what they are and why they’re causing such agony for people
Mesh implants have caused misery and suffering to thousands of people across the UK. They have left many of them in permanent pain, unable to walk, work or make love to their partners.
But despite frequent complications, the operations are continuing to be carried out on the NHS and privately.
Pauline Inch, from Barry, has a mesh implanted to support her stomach muscles.
But she claims it is “slowly killing” her and has left her in constant, crippling pain.
The 60-year-old said it is now “embedded” in her bowel, abdomen and surrounding organs – but she says no surgeon will attempt to remove it.
“I don’t feel like I’m a human being anymore,” she said.
“I can’t even look after myself because of what this mesh has done to me. It has robbed me of my life and my marriage.”
Carolyn Churchill, from Nantgarw, was an active woman who worked as a chef and spent hours each week walking her dogs.
But that all changed when a plastic mesh was implanted into her in a bid to combat her stress incontinence.
The 57-year-old said the implant left her in agonising pain, stopped her walking properly and ruined a 14-year relationship with her partner.
“I feel absolutely traumatised by it all,” she said.
“I was left in horrendous pain. I was unable to walk properly, I couldn’t lie on my side for five years and I couldn’t bend as all the movement from my waist down was restricted.
“I’ve given birth to three children naturally and I would rather go through that 10 times over than go through the pain of the mesh again.”
Catherine Haley, 55, was given the pelvic implant during an operation to remove her womb and repair a prolapsed bowel in 2004.
But she claims she started suffering complications soon afterwards, including daily bleeding.
The mum of five said: “My youngest started school two months before I prolapsed and from then on it has just been awful.
“It affects your whole life in a way you don’t understand at the time. I was scared to go out because I became incontinent.
“I struggle to do anything.” The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is due to issue new guidance on the devices treating organ prolapse next month.
The watchdog could say that the devices are either: no longer recommended for use; that they should only be used for research purposes;
or that they should only take place when clinicians have had certain conversations with prospective patients about possible side-effects or complications.
BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show has reported that NICE will recommend that the devices should no longer be used. However, NICE’s recommendations are not mandatory.
At present, the regulator has different pieces of draft guidance for varying uses of the devices – such as prolapse or urinary incontinence.
It currently states that the procedure “should only be used with special arrangements for clinical governance, consent and audit or research”.
And that clinicians wishing to undertake this surgical repair should “ensure that patients understand that there is uncertainty about the longterm results and there is a risk of complications, including sexual dysfunction and erosion into the vagina, which would require additional procedures”. The issue has gained a lot of political attention in recent months and a debate on their use was held in Parliament on October 18.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Surgical Mesh Implants, chaired by Owen Smith MP, has been calling for better support for mesh-injured women, together with the campaign group Sling the Mesh.
It is calling for the suspension of mesh and a full investigation in the use of mesh.
Pontypridd MP Owen Smith said he welcomed NICE’s decision to move forward new guidance on the devices treating pelvic organ prolapse – but said more needs to be done.
He said: “It’s another move towards clinicians recognising the scale of the risk associated with mesh and an acknowledgement that mesh has been too widely seen as a quick fix for patients.
“NICE now needs to bring forward new guidelines into the other procedures where mesh is being used, for stress-related incontinence and hernias, because there are similar and growing concerns there too about the safety of this treatment.”
Kath Sansom, of campaign group Sling the Mesh, said: “We are delighted that it is the first mesh to effectively get a back-door ban but much more now needs to happen.
“The full guidelines for all prolapse mesh and incontinence mesh are due out in 2019 but that is way too long to wait.
“NICE must bring those guidelines forward to 2018. It is unacceptable, knowing the pressure being put on by patient safety campaign groups, to hold off until 2019.
“Sling the Mesh now has more than 4,400 members. All saying the same thing – they were assured they were the only ones suffering.
“It is essential to get the full NICE guidelines out much earlier than 2019 to prevent more women being harmed by a mesh device that is not fit for purpose.” A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We are currently reviewing the use of vaginal mesh and tape and will await the NICE recommendations.”