If you were diagnosed with Canalicular Stenosis after undergoing chemotherapy with Taxotere, contact a Taxotere attorney from Hotze Runkle PLLC right away to discuss your rights and legal options. Canalicular Stenosis is a medical condition, causing various symptoms that affect the eyes. You likely suffered physically, financially, and emotionally with your cancer diagnosis and should not have to face additional challenges from Canalicular Stenosis at the same time.
This can be a stressful and traumatic experience. You’ve been treating cancer with chemotherapy and thought you were making progress only to find out that Taxotere comes with harmful side effects. Sanofi-Aventis is the pharmaceutical company responsible for creating and manufacturing Taxotere. They failed to provide appropriate warning labels about the risks patients take when given this drug during chemo. This has led to an onslaught of lawsuits around the country filed by current and former cancer patients.
Symptoms Canalicular Stenosis Can Cause
Canalicular Stenosis develops when the canaliculus in the eye becomes inflamed and wholly or partially closes. When the tear ducts make tears, the canaliculus funnels them to the nasal cavity. However, chronic inflammation and eye infections block the tears from flowing as usual through the canaliculus.
When a person’s tears are unable to travel through this eye structure and drain into the nasal cavity, they end up settling on the surface of the eye. With nowhere else to go, excessive eye-watering occurs when the person blinks. This is called epiphora. It’s one of the first symptoms you might experience during Taxotere chemotherapy. If you don’t seek medical treatment at the first sign of an adverse reaction, epiphora could develop into Canalicular Stenosis, leading to other symptoms.
Common symptoms of Canalicular Stenosis include:
- Dry eyes
- Excessive watery eyes
- Cloudy or blurry vision
- Eye infections
- Swollen eyelids
- Light sensitivity
- Central vision loss
Scientists and researchers studied these symptoms that cancer patients and survivors were experiencing to determine why this happens. They found that as Taxotere travels through the body, it interacts with bodily fluids, such as urine, blood, and tears. Those secretions come in contact with the tears, leading to inflammation of the canaliculus.
Treating Canalicular Stenosis with Surgery
Canalicular Stenosis becomes severe when the canaliculus starts to close due to the obstructions. It isn’t possible to reverse this medical condition once it develops. You could try to manage your symptoms, but treatment often requires going under the knife.
Dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) is an invasive procedure involving cutting into the ocular cavity to fuse adjacent eye structures. This forms a new tunnel for tears to flow through so they can drain into the nasal cavity.
Some risks are associated with this type of surgery, including:
- Abnormally fused tissue
- Damage to eye and nose structures
- Permanent and significant facial scars
- Blindness
- Sinusitis
- Uncontrollable hemorrhaging
- Chronic eye infections
- Tissue and nerve damage
If your doctor can’t perform DCR because you don’t have viable structures to create a new passageway for your tears, they might perform conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomy (CDCR). The doctor will place a small glass stent over the closed canaliculus to redirect tears around it. This surgery can alleviate the symptoms you’re experiencing but comes with much the same risks and side effects as DCR.
Treating Canalicular Stenosis and Chemotherapy At the Same Time
Even though you’re undergoing surgery to treat your Canalicular Stenosis symptoms, you don’t have to stop chemotherapy at a St. Paul cancer hospital. You can continue your usual regimen, but it would be best to notify your oncologist of your symptoms, so they can switch from Taxotere to another drug. They can monitor your symptoms and overall health so the condition doesn’t worsen or interfere with the chemo.
The doctor might even be able to use a temporary stent. It would aid your tears in traveling around the blocked canaliculus, so further damage doesn’t occur and cause a recurrence of symptoms. Around six to eight weeks after you complete chemo, the doctor would remove the stent.
Proving Liability In a Taxotere Lawsuit In St. Paul
Taxotere is available to administer to a patient intravenously or orally. It can treat breast cancer, lung cancer, and stomach cancer, to name just a few. Sanofi created this drug to attack cancerous cells in the body, so they can’t grow and spread to other areas.
Although successful in treating various forms of cancer, former and current patients began noticing watery eyes, blurry vision, and other symptoms. As it turns out, Sanofi never disclosed the possible side effects on any warning labels. They also didn’t mention the results of a study they performed discovering the adverse reaction Taxotere can have with a person’s tears.
You might be entitled to recover past and future losses you suffered due to your diagnosis when you file a lawsuit against the negligent drug company. These losses include:
- Mental anguish
- Out of pocket costs
- Lost wages and earning capacity
- Medical bills
- Travel reimbursement for driving to and from treatment
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of companionship or consortium
The jury might also determine you deserve punitive damages. This isn’t compensation for your losses; instead, it punishes the defendant for their misconduct. A jury will only award punitive damages if you can show evidence of Sanofi’s intentional disregard for people’s safety and rights.
Take Our Taxotere Quiz Today
Our St. Paul Canalicular Stenosis lawsuit attorneys understand the suffering you were forced to endure due to the pharmaceutical company’s actions. Cancer is scary and causes a great deal of stress and uncertainty for the patient and their family. You shouldn’t have to face other obstacles on your road to recovery.
At Hotze Runkle PLLC, we have represented clients in St. Paul and throughout the country and recovered over $100 million in financial compensation. When you hire us, we will fight hard to reach a favorable outcome in your case. Our legal team dedicates time, attention, and effort to each of our clients, and you can expect to feel like a priority from start to finish of the legal process.
Take our Taxotere Quiz today to find out if you’re eligible to file a lawsuit against Sanofi-Aventis.