Stericycle Expert Solutions assessed five years of recall trends data finding that software is often the top cause of medical device recalls.
Here's what you should know:
1. There were 152 devices recalls issued in the fourth quarter of 2017. This is the lowest amount of recalls since Q4 of 2011.
2. The amount of individual devices recalled dropped 45 percent to 37.4 million in Q4, which is lower than eight of the last 11 quarters.
3. The average recall size was 245,862 units in Q4, which is a drop from last quarter's 407,256 recalled units. However, this quarter is still higher than 16 of the last 20 quarters.
4. Manufacturing defects accounted for 40.6 percent of recalled units in Q4 2017.
5. Approximately 25.7 percent of the recalls over the last five years were software related. Software has been a top-cause for recalls for seven consecutive quarters.