Current Events

DETROIT — In an escalating confrontation with regulators, Chrysler said on Tuesday that it would not recall 2.7 million Jeeps that the government contends are defective and prone to fires in the event of rear-impact collisions.

It is unusual for a car company to refuse a recall request made by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates the safety of vehicles.

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High doses of painkillers such as ibuprofen raise the risk of heart disease, according to a review of 639 studies that draws a parallel with the potential danger from newer pain drugs including Pfizer Inc. (PFE)’s Celebrex and Merck & Co.’s withdrawn Vioxx.

Over a year of treatment, for every 1,000 patients with moderate heart disease risk who took 2,400 milligrams of ibuprofen or 150 milligrams of diclofenac, both daily doses standard for arthritis, three patients would experience an avoidable heart attack, the analysis showed. Ibuprofen is sold as a generic and under brand names such as Advil and Nurofen.

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Cook Medical received a small number of complaints that the delivery system of the device had separated at the tip of the inner catheter. Potential adverse events that may occur in cases where the inner delivery catheter breakage occurs include possible surgery to remove the catheter tip, vascular occlusion due to an unretrieved catheter tip, thrombosis, amputation, possible cardiac arrest, and death.  This recall includes all sizes, diameters and lot numbers prior to April 16, 2013.

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General Motors Co. is recalling more than 27,000 Cadillac SUVs worldwide because the wheels can fall off.

The company says the recall affects the 2013 Cadillac SRX with 18-inch wheels. Canadian safety regulators say the wheel nuts may not have been tightened enough at the factory.

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The Center for Auto Safety is asking top officials at the Chrysler Group and its parent company, Fiat, to recall about five million vehicles. The nonprofit consumer advocacy group said, “Children are dying in Jeeps in rear-impact fires.”

In a letter to John Elkann on Wednesday, Fiat’s chairman, the center cited the deaths of three children since 2006 in fires that occurred when the Jeeps in which they were riding were struck from the rear.

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Subaru is recalling a relative handful of 2013 Outback and Legacy models for a potentially huge issue that the automaker thought it had fixed last year -- the steering could fail.

Affected: 5,379 Outback and Legacy models made Feb.15, 2012 through June 15, 2012. No injuries or deaths are reported.

Subaru lists the supplier of the potentially defective shafts as NSK Steering Systems America, of Bennington, Vermont.

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The Food and Drug Administration has been interviewing doctors in a review of complaints about a popular robotic surgery device.

In a prepared statement, FDA spokeswoman Synim Rivers said the survey was undertaken after an increase in the number of complaints received about the da Vinci surgical system. Sunnyvale Calif.-based Intuitive Surgical Inc. makes the robots, which are used in gynecological, kidney and general surgery.

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The Wall Street Journal recently published the results of a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins who found that diagnostic errors accounted for a major and costly portion of the overall medical errors that take place in the U.S. each year.

The study, published in the journal BMJ Quality and Safety, involved researchers examining 350,000 medical malpractice claims that have been filed over the past 25 years. The results were clear that the most common, most expensive and, ultimately, the most dangerous errors were in misdiagnosing patients. The study estimated that such misdiagnosis leads to permanent injury or death in as many as 160,000 people each year.

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The orthopedic unit of Johnson & Johnson said Thursday that it was phasing out production of all-metal replacement hips, a move reflecting an industrywide trend to abandon the once widely used implants because of high early failure rates.

In 2010, the company, DePuy Orthopaedics, recalled an all-metal model known as the Articular Surface Replacement, or A.S.R., because it was failing just a few years after implant. Typically, artificial hips made from materials like plastic and metal last 15 years or more before they wear out and need to be replaced.

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The Food and Drug Administration approved label changes incorporating lower dosages for sleep medications containing zolpidem, a drug that can continue to affect patients' mental alertness even a day after its use.

The regulator approved changes to the labels of Sanofi SA's Ambien, Ambien CR and Meda AB's Edluar on Tuesday.

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Subaru is recalling 5,379 Legacy and Outback cars in the United States because of a problem that could cause them to lose steering control.

Steering shafts in the cars, all from the 2013 model year, could become disengaged, causing a loss of steering. The steering shaft on the cars is made from two pieces -- an inner and an outer shaft -- which, in the vehicles involved, can become separated. If that happens, the driver can lose the ability to steer the car.

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