According to Business Week, Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit is recalling medical drainage products over concerns of sterility of the products. The company issued an urgent recall of about 360,000 surgical drains, stating that the packaging might not keep the product sterile. The company received complaints from customers but no adverse events were recorded.
The product recall affects Ethicon’s Blake silicone drain, silicone drain kit and cardio connector and J-Vax reservoir and drain adapter. The products were distributed between February 28, 2010 and May 10, 2010. The products have expiration dates between January 2015 and December 2015, most lot numbers start with J10 or W000. The product codes range from 2210 – 2234, 2205 – 2207, 2238, 2268, BCC1 – BCC3, 2160 and 2199.
The company said consumers should stop using the products and send them to Stericycle, Inc, a company that disposed of medical waste. Customer complaints brought attention that the sterile barrier in the product packaging was compromised.
Ethicon had issued several voluntary recalls in the past months, including 700,000 units of liquid wound sealant, 70,000 pre-filled syringes, 700,000 vials of a liquid hernia-treatment product and 104 batches of surgical sutures. Johnson & Johnson has had its share of recent product recalls, including 395 injection pens that may not have been filled with correct rheumatoid-arthritis drug dosage, 667,000 Sudafed packages due to warning label misprint, 70,000 syringes preloaded with anti-psychotic drug over cracks in the syringes, 43 million bottles of Tylenol, Bendaryl, Sinutab and Sudafed, and a major recall of children’s Benadryl and Motrin products.