FDA Orders Recall of Baxter Colleague Infusion Pumps

Washington, DC: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered Baxter Healthcare Corp to recall and destroy all of its Colleague Volumetric Infusion Pumps (Colleague pumps) currently in use in the United States. This action is based on a longstanding failure to correct many serious problems with the pumps. The FDA believes there may be as many as 200,000 of those pumps currently in use.

Additionally, the FDA is ordering the company to provide refunds to customers or replace pumps at no cost to customers help defray the cost of replacement.

Infusion pumps are devices that deliver fluids, including nutrients and medications, into a patient's body in a controlled manner. They are widely used in hospitals, other clinical settings and, increasingly, in the home because they allow a greater level of accuracy in fluid delivery.

The FDA has been working with Baxter since 1999 to correct numerous device flaws. Since then, Colleague pumps have been the subject of several Class I recalls for battery swelling, inadvertent power off, service data errors, and other issues.

Infusion pumps, including the Baxter Colleague models, have been the source of persistent safety problems. In the past five years, the FDA has received more than 56,000 reports of adverse events associated with the use of infusion pumps. Those events have included serious injuries and more than 500 deaths. Between 2005 and 2009, 87 infusion pump recalls were conducted to address identified safety concerns, according to FDA data.

An FDA analysis of these adverse events has uncovered software defects, user interface problems and mechanical and electrical failures. Problems with infusion pumps are not confined to one manufacturer or one type of device.

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Published on May-4-10