Hip Replacement Lawsuits

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Hip Replacement Prostheses Recall

The following hip replacement prostheses have been recalled. If you have undergone surgery and have received one of the following prostheses or if you know of someone who has one of the hip prostheses described below, you and your loved one may be entitled to receive compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, undue suffering, and other personal damages and losses.

Contact an experienced defective medical device liability litigation attorney at Carey Danis & Lowe for more information about filing a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer of your recalled hip replacement prosthesis.

Johnson & Johnson/Depuy Recall

Defects have been reported in the Johnson and Johnson and Depuy Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene hip prostheses, leading to a recall of the medical device manufacturer’s products. The material used by Johnson & Johnson and Depuy to manufacture the hip prostheses is polyurethane, a type of plastic and rubber composite that has been known to degrade at a fast rate when exposed to radioactive waves.

Apparently, Johnson & Johnson and Depuy, in an effort to sterilize the hip replacement prostheses, exposed them to gamma radiation, which ultimately caused the majority of the prostheses to crack, break, and develop an overall brittle material quality.

Stryker Corporation Subsidiary Howmedica Implant Recalls

After an investigation led by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2007, the Stryker Corporation issued a recall notice for two of its hip prostheses, the Trident Acetabular PSL and the Hemispherical Acetabular Cup. Individuals who have undergone surgery to receive one of the Trident model ceramic hip replacement prostheses began noticing, above all, an odd squeaky noise coming from the prosthesis during joint movement. Patients have also suffered from severe pain, bone fractures, and fragmentation and cracking of the ceramic prosthesis.

Biomet Implant Recalls

In 2001, Biomet was one of eight U.S. medical device manufacturers who collectively and voluntarily recalled  hip prosthesis models that included zirconia ceramic femoral heads made by a French company called St. Gobain Desmarquest. The recall was prompted by reports of the zirconia ceramic femoral heads cracking, fracturing, and breaking only a year after being used as a component in a hip prosthesis.

The 2007 Biomet recall involved improper laser etching execution for size in a specific model of the medical device manufacturer’s tibial bearings. In 2008, Biomet released another recall for the Modular Microplasty Cup Inserter, a major component of Biomet’s hip prostheses.

Wright Medical Conserve Hip Replacement Recalls

Wright Medical announced a recall in 2004 of their hip replacement system within the Conserve line of hip prostheses. The Conserve and Conserve Plus hip prosthesis systems involved a metal on metal design, which often resulted in metal fragments coming loose and entering the patient’s body. Wright Medical’s Conserve hip replacement system included a manufacturing defect in the metal acetabular hip cups involving the inclusion of a metal ridge in the interior metal acetabular cup.

With implantation of the Wright Medical hip replacement system, it became clear that metal fragments were being rubbed off of the metal ridge, and entering the patient’s body, causing both severe pain and serious health problems as well as necessitating revision surgery to correct the defective Wright Medical hip replacement prosthesis.

Zimmer Durom Metasul Hip Cup Replacement Recall

The defective status of the Zimmer Durom Metasul Hip Cup came to light in early 2008, which is when surgeons began taking notice of the large quantity of revision surgeries necessary only a couple of years after individuals had received an implantation of the Zimmer Durom Metasul Hip Cup. As of 2008, approximately 13,000 individuals had undergone surgery to receive the Zimmer Durom Metasul Hip Cup.

As most hip prostheses are designed for older patients who will not significantly wear down their hip replacements through years of activity, the design objective behind the Zimmer Durom Hip Cup was to stand in contrast to the traditional hip replacement prostheses targeted for the elderly. The Zimmer Durom Hip Cup was designed with durability in mind, and geared towards younger, more active individuals.

Unfortunately, the Zimmer Durom Hip Cup had a huge design flaw, resulting in the metal portions of the hip cup being unable to fuse with adjacent bones.

It is understood that the hip replacement prostheses outlined above are defective, have the potential to malfunction, cause serious harm, require revision surgery, break, fragment, and become loose. Patients with these defective and recalled hip replacement prostheses often need further surgical operations, known as revision surgery, that result in another exhausting and painful recovery period.

Furthermore, the need for revision surgery accrues medical and financial expenses and compromises the well being of patients by exposing them to complications from surgical operations.

An experienced defective medical device liability litigator at Carey Danis & Lowe can assist you and your loved one if either of you have had a hip replaced with one of the prostheses described above. Moreover, you or your loved one are entitled to compensation for your extreme suffering.

Please contact Carey Danis & Lowe today for more information about filing a class action lawsuit against one of the faulty medical device manufacturers named above. As a consumer, you should never bear the burden of a pharmaceutical corporation’s negligence and lack of compliance with consumer protection laws.

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