Learning Curves: Historical Trends of FDA-Reported Adverse Events – MDedge
Dermal fillers are considered Class III medical devices by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).1 Reports of adverse events (AEs) for medical devices are made public by the FDA to allow for transparent postmarketing surveillance.2The AE trends extracted from these historical data may help distinguish between expected learning curves of new dermal fillers versus unsafe products that may require FDA intervention. Considering that aesthetic treatments are not medically necessary, a low risk profile is paramount and determining what constitutes normal learning curves is important for impartial assessment of AEs as new fillers come on the market. The concept of a 3-year learning curve can be an important tool for safety monitoring going forward, creating a bar for quality that could trigger increased surveillance if a product fails to meet an expected arc of diminished AEs over time. This study serves to evaluate historical AE data and to establish learning curves for FDA-approved dermal fillers.