Mesh devices may be to blame for autoimmune symptoms

The scandal surrounding surgical mesh implants isn’t going away and new research might link the devices to being responsible for patients developing autoimmune disorders.

The news comes from a rheumatologist from the University of Alberta who believes that symptoms such as chronic fatigue, cognitive impairments and muscle pain can be linked to patients who have been implanted with mesh devices.

Jan Willem Cohen Tervaert, director of the Division of Rheumatology explains. 

“In my practice, I studied 40 patients who had mesh implants and found that almost all of them had symptoms such as chronic fatigue, cognitive impairment known as “brain fog,” muscle and joint pain “fibromyalgia,” feverish temperature, and dry eyes and dry mouth,” Tervaert said.  

“Of those patients, 45% developed an autoimmune disorder such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. And in the patients who had allergies before the implant, they were significantly worse after.”

Tervaert acknowledges that the study is small but believes that the link between autoimmune disorders and mesh devices can’t be put down to pure coincidence. He states that a larger study is needed to confirm whether mesh devices are to blame for autoimmune symptoms.

Indeed last year, a survey of 500 women who’d had mesh implants was conducted by campaign group Sling the Mesh. The survey linked 25% of respondents to having autoimmune diseases and around 30% as having developed fibromyalgia.

Tervaert also believes that the link between mesh device and autoimmune diseases could be the same one found in silicone breast implant disease.

“When a foreign body is put into the body, there is an instant activation of the immune system. It continues to fight the foreign body and eventually, over time, fatigues and becomes dysfunctional,” Tervaert said.

“Large-scale studies have shown that patients with breast implants have more symptoms of ASIA (autoimmune/autoinflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants) and an increased risk to develop an autoimmune disorder. And in animal models, it has been demonstrated that these silicones can induce autoimmune diseases if the animals have the right genetics.”

Despite this new information Tervaret states that patients with mesh implants shouldn’t panic as many “do not develop symptoms or a disease. You must have the genes in the first place.”

Tervaret noted that pre-existing allergies were present in 80% of breast implant patients, the same percentage who had allergies when mesh implants caused problems in his patient group.

In the future, Tervaret hopes that a genetic test will be able inform people who are vulnerable to autoimmune disorders after implants.

There is also hope for patients with mesh implants who do have autoimmune symptoms after the mesh is removed, said Cohen Tervaert.

“Patients who have had symptoms associated with breast implants felt much better after the implants were removed, and in some cases they reported a total cure.”

Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to remove mesh implants. Sling the Mesh’s survey showed that only 14% of women were able to have device fully removed after surgery.