BOWEL OP BLUNDERS
57 patients wrongly given controversial surgery that can cause years of agony
MORE than 50 patients who were given a controversial type of bowel surgery should not have had the procedure, a hospital trust has admitted.
An investigation concluded that alternative treatments should have been offered.
Dozens of women who had the procedure using artificial mesh at southmead Hospital in Bristol say they are continuing to suffer severe pain. The daily Mail has been highlighting problems about the use of mesh implants for nearly a decade.
The majority of the Bristol operations were carried out by surgeon Tony dixon, although some were performed by three other doctors.
Mr dixon, who also worked at the private spire Hospital in Bristol, pioneered the use of artificial mesh to lift prolapsed bowels – a condition often caused by childbirth. The technique was known as laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy.
He was suspended in 2017 after concerns were first raised and an inquiry at North Bristol Trust began to examine 143 cases.
Now the trust has told 57 patients they should have been offered alternative treatment first.
seventy-three patients have been told their surgery was appropriate. a further 13 have been told that investigations are continuing.
The North Bristol NHs Trust reviewed the cases of women and men operated on between 2007 and 2017, although the operations began in the early 2000s. It is not known how many of the 57 are women.
dr Chris Burton, the trust’s medical director, apologised to patients who had surgery unnecessarily.
‘We took immediate action to ensure this couldn’t happen again. We will keep investigating to ensure we have identified those patients affected, and to find out what happened,’ he said.
law firm Irwin Mitchell, which represents 49 people who had surgery at southmead and spire hospitals, called on the trust to ‘openly publish its findings’.
solicitor sallie Booth said: ‘Today’s announcement is extremely concerning and understandably has caused a great deal of distress to our clients.’
Irwin Mitchell has already agreed terms with North Bristol NHs Trust for a compensation scheme.
Medical negligence specialists from Thompsons solicitors are representing more than 90 patients. The firm’s mesh expert Madeleine Pinschof said: ‘ This is another example of the dangerous complications associated with surgical mesh procedures.’
dr JJ de Gorter of spire Healthcare said the company had written to patients who have had a laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy procedure, inviting them to a ‘face-toface consultation with an independent consultant specialist’. He added: ‘We expect to complete all consultations in May.’
Mr dixon is currently the subject of practising restrictions while the General Medical Council carries out a full investigation.
Following a long-running campaign by the daily Mail’s Good Health team, the use of mesh to treat incontinence in a range of procedures has been suspended pending a government review.
If implanted near the vagina or bowel, where there are naturally high levels of bacteria, experts say it can set up an infection which may degrade the material. This causes it to break up and fragments can burrow into tissue.
‘A great deal of distress’