Abstract
Over the last few years, an increasing number of lawsuits have been filed involving
inferior vena cava filters. This has prompted the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict
Litigation to centralize these lawsuits into two multidistrict litigations: one for
Cook's filters and one for Bard's. Both sets of cases share similar questions of facts,
in particular whether these filters' design and manufacturing practices made them
unreasonably prone to serious complications. The resolution of these cases will add
to a larger legal debate concerning how much legal protection the 1976 Medical Device
Amendments should offer firms from tort liability. As a specialty that often relies
on medical devices, it is not only important for interventional radiologists to have
a general understanding of medical device litigation but also to reflect upon the
approaches to informed consent regarding these devices.
Keywords
IVC filter - medical device litigation - informed consent - interventional radiology
