Walter Reed: Use of Medtronic Device

More from under the 'bush'! And why is Grassley asking, he should know, Congress did little as to regulating anything when the tepublicans controlled!!

2 Senators Raise Questions on Use of Medtronic Device

December 27, 2010 - Two senators are raising new questions about an experimental use of a Medtronic device in spinal surgery on veterans and soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 2002 to 2004.

Senators Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the committee’s ranking Republican, wrote the commanding general of Walter Reed on Dec. 17 to ask about safeguards in a study by three Army surgeons. Senator Grassley’s office provided the letter to The New York Times.

The senators asked what the Army was doing to investigate certain back surgeries at Walter Reed and whether patients had been told they were receiving devices for uses not cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. They also asked how Army protocols could ensure proper review of medical tests involving soldiers and veterans. The surgeons, who have received money from Medtronic, had implanted and written about a Medtronic device called Hydrosorb Mesh, which contained a bone-growth material called Infuse. {continued}