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Legal bid to release list of Quebec heart patients with questionable valves rejected

11.08.2008 20:00 Health - Source: cbc.ca

The Quebec Health Insurance Board has been thwarted in its attempt to force a U.S. medical company to turn over its list of cardiac patients from the province.

The Quebec Superior Court said in an Aug. 6 ruling that the board is acting prematurely in demanding information about people who were fitted with products made by St. Jude Medical Inc., based in St. Paul, Minn.

The company is the target of class action lawsuits in Canada, the United States and Europe over its silver-coated heart valves.

St. Jude Medical issued a worldwide recall in January 2000 of its heart valve and annuloplasty rings made with fabric coated with a product called Silzone.

The silver coating theoretically reduces the risk of infection that follows mechanical heart valve surgery. However, problems occurred. Sutures sometimes tore away from the valve. In some cases, the valve started leaking.

Plaintiffs' lawyers have alleged the silver used in St. Jude's Silzone mechanical heart valves is shed by the devices at dangerous levels and that the silver coating is toxic to heart tissue.

In addition to the class action lawsuits, St. Jude Medical also faces a $1.8-million claim by Quebec's Health Insurance Board to recover its costs for buying the valves and paying for doctors to implant them.

As part of the lawsuit, the board said St. Jude must turn over a list of all of its Silzone patients in the province. St. Jude said it didn't have to provide the information.

Quebec Superior Court Judge Andr Roy ruled that the health board isn't entitled to the list of names yet, ruling that this position could change once the trial gets underway.

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