[Implantable medical devices]. / Dispositifs médicaux implantables.

Medical devices have been individualized to include a category of implantable medical devices, "designed to be totally implanted in the human body or to replace an epithelial surface or a surface of the eye, through surgery, and remain in place after the intervention" (directive 93/42/CEE and decree of 20 April 206). Each implantable medical device has a common name and a commercial name for precise identification of the model (type/references). The users' service and the implanting physician should be clearly identified. There are a number of rules concerning health traceability to rapidly identify patients exposed to risks in which the implantable medical devices of a particular batch or series were used and to monitor the consequences. The traceability data should be preserved 10 years and the patient's medical file for 20 years.

Mutagenic properties of a nitrofuran, 7-methoxy-2-nitronaphtho[2, 1-b]furan (R7000), in lacI transgenic mice.

The in vivo mutagenic properties of a 5-nitrofuran, the 7-methoxy-2-nitronaphtho[2,1-b]furan (R7000), already well known in bacteria, was evaluated in lacI transgenic mice (Big Blue). The mutation frequency was determined in various organs of i.p. - treated mice and the nature of induced mutations was determined for the target organs in which mutation induction was significant. It was found that R7000 is mutagenic in mice, although, on the basis of the number of induced mutants per unit mass in comparison with other known mutagenic chemicals, R7000 appears to be considerably less mutagenic in mice than in bacteria. The most affected organs, small intestine, caecum and colon organs belong to the digestive apparatus. The distribution of R7000-induced mutations in the lacI gene recovered from small intestine of transgenic mice was very similar to that which had been found in E. coli. The difference between mouse and E. coli in the R7000 induced mutational spectra are mainly in the proportion of single base frameshifts versus base substitutions. Since R7000 induced mutations seemed to arise in the population of stem cells and that the stem cells are important for carcinogenesis, our results are compatible with a possible carcinogenic effect of R7000 and other nitrofurans.