DePuy Metal-on-Metal Hip implants: Problems and failures reported with this type of replacement
Some of America's top orthopedic surgeons have greatly limited or halted use of a popular type of DePuy hip replacement. This has been due to worries that the so-called "metal-on-metal" hip implant models are causing severe tissue and bone damage in some patients, often requiring replacement surgery within a year or two.
Recently, metal-on-metal implants such as the DePuy ASR hip implant model, have been used in about one-third of the approximately 250,000 hip replacements performed annually in this country, according to a recent article in the New York Times.
The DePuy metal-on-metal hip implants have been used in conventional hip replacements and in a popular alternative procedure known as "hip resurfacing".
DePuy Orthopaedics, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, began phasing out its metal-on-metal ASR hip implant in December 2009, it said, due to poor sales.
On March 6, 2010, the company sent a letter to doctors warning that this particular DePuy hip implant model appears to have a high early failure rate in some patients.
The letter said that data shows that the risk is highest for patients of small stature, a group that would typically include women, and patients with weak bones.
This information came after two years of reports from patients who had to have replacement surgeries.
In some cases, the DePuy hip system implant had failed after just a few years. The Food and Drug Administration has received over 300 complaints from people who have been implanted with the ASR hip since 2008.
The recent Times article quotes Dr. Stephen Graves, the director of an implant database in Australia (the DePuy ASR has been implanted in patients worldwide), who said that the DePuy ASR hip implant had been failing early at a significantly higher rate than that of some of its competitors' hip implants.
Many people have been implanted with the DePuy ASR hip and experienced serious complications such as the need for replacement/revision surgeries.
Legal Options
If you have experienced complications from a DePuy ASR hip metal-on-metal hip implant, please complete the form below to discuss a possible DePuy hip lawsuit concerning the DePuy hip recall with Weitz & Luxenberg's DePuy hip implant injury lawyers.
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