acquired for $810 million in 2010 from Arizant Medical (Dr. Augustine
resigned in 2002 as Arizant's chairman and CEO), disrupts the OR's natu-
ral air flow, forcing hot air up while stirring contaminated particles from
the floor and into the sterile field.
Those deep-joint surgical site infections (SSIs) that plague thousands
of hip and knee patients every year? Dr. Augustine says the signs point
to the Bair Hugger. Dr. Augustine's claims come with the ultimate
caveat. His company sells the HotDog Patient Warming System, an air-
free warming method that uses a conductive fabric to warm the
patient from above and below. And there's another fact that compli-
cates matters even further: Dr. Augustine is not only the world's lead-
ing critic of the Bair Hugger. He's also the one who invented it in 1987.
"I got on a crusade to tell the world about a problem that techni-
cally I created," he says.
The stakes for 3M, for Dr. Augustine and for patients and surgical
facilities couldn't be higher. 3M says its device warms 50,000 patients
each day. By some estimates, patient warming is more than a $1 bil-
lion global industry. Here's where things stand in the debate about the
Bair Hugger.
The lawsuits
A rash of lawsuits followed Dr. Augustine's Bair Hugger claims. About
5,000 orthopedic patients across the country have sued 3M, making
the same argument about the supposed link between the forced-air
warmer and SSIs. Dr. Augustine downplays his role in the lawsuits,
but he also admits to advising the lawyers who set off the wave of liti-
gation.
"We had no role other than doing the initial education that got things
rolling," he says. "3M would like to make this into a conspiracy."
Dr. Augustine says he's on a crusade for patient safety. 3M says he has
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