Letter to the Editor
Op-ed on medical devices ignored the facts
Dear Editor:
It's a shame that Daniel J. Vukelich, in his Sept. 17 op-ed regarding reprocessed, single-use only medical devices, tried to justify the reuse of medical waste in a patients' surgery by exploiting economic and environmental arguments. In doing so, he has willfully ignored the real issue of informed patient consent.
It is well known that all surgeries carry an inherent risk. What trusting and unassuming patients may not realize is that the intricate medical devices designed and manufactured to be used only once may have already been used in other patients' surgeries.
These single-use only devices often have unique features that make cleaning difficult, if not impossible. They come in contact will blood, bone and other body fluids - and provide a surface on which blood and other organic matter can accumulate (a possible source of unexplained hospital infections). Research from a recent study published in a peer-reviewed medical journal revealed traces of proteins and nucleic acids from human cells on reprocessed single-use only medical devices, as well as compromised functionality of these same devices.
We acknowledge that health care costs have steadily escalated, and that many facilities that reprocess single-use devices do so as a means of containing costs. Shockingly, these same reprocessed single-use only medical devices are used in surgeries without the consent or knowledge of patients.
All we are asking through this pending legislation is that patients have access to this information to make an informed choice prior to surgery.
Thomas J. Sommer
President of the Massachusetts
Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC)
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