Retrievable IVC filters were designed as temporary devices, but millions of patients had filters left in place long-term — often indefinitely. As filter metal fatigues over time, struts fracture and separate from the filter body. These broken struts migrate through the bloodstream and lodge in the heart, lungs, aorta, kidneys, or surrounding soft tissue. The FDA's post-market surveillance data, as well as MDL discovery documents from both Bard and Cook, confirm that fracture and migration rates far exceeded what manufacturers disclosed at the time of implantation.

Documented IVC filter complications include: device fracture and strut separation; strut migration to the heart (cardiac perforation), lungs, aorta, or spine; cardiac tamponade requiring emergency pericardiocentesis or open cardiac surgery; pulmonary embolism when the filter fails its core clot-trapping function; DVT caused by the filter itself becoming a clotting nidus; caval penetration (filter struts piercing the vena cava wall); filter tilt reducing trapping efficiency; and impossible retrieval — struts embedded so deeply that standard endovascular retrieval is unsafe, requiring high-risk open surgery.