DePuy Hip Complications Prompt Worldwide Recall
Everyday, more lawsuits are filed across the globe as hip implant recipients increasingly experience DePuy hip complications.
As of mid January, hundreds of Americans have obtained a DePuy hip lawyer and dozens have filed suits against the device maker, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. By the time the first bellwether trials get off the ground in 2012 or so, thousands of hip recipients may be involved in their own DePuy hip lawsuit.
DePuy hip complications may affect more patients than early predictions
DePuy’s ASR artificial hip was implanted in about 93,000 people worldwide and 30,000 people in America before it was recalled last August. The DePuy hip recall was based on a finding that the device failed twice as often as competing devices.
Many medical experts and DePuy hip lawyers believe the device is even more dangerous than that. In a Newcastle University study involving 500 Irish patients, Dr. Thomas Joyce witnessed DePuy hip complications and failure in 50 percent of patients over six years. The device is supposed to last 20-25 years without DePuy hip complications.
In Ireland, where just over 3,500 ASR devices were implanted, experts suggest that 1,400 patients will need revision surgery.
In Canada, between 1,500 to 4,000 DePuy ASRs were implanted. There, and in the US as well, no official implant registry exists, making it extremely difficult to know for certain how many people were affected by the DePuy hip recall.
DePuy hip complications may require hip revision surgery
Patients who experience the most serious DePuy hip complications – loosening of the implant, hip bone fracture, and hip implant dislocation – will have to undergo hip revision surgery, a costly replacement procedure that is more complicated and painful than the original surgery.
Even those allowed to keep their implant won’t necessarily be free of DePuy hip complications. Some DePuy hip complications simply aren’t catastrophic enough to require immediate revision. All DePuy hip recipients, for example, are at risk of developing metallosis, specifically cobalt and chromium poisoning – a proven DePuy hip complication linked to tumors and cancer. Metallosis, also called metal poisoning, can cause damage extensive enough to make revision surgery impossible.
Those affected by the DePuy hip recall, should talk to a doctor and a DePuy hip lawyer to learn more about correcting existing hip complications, testing for future ones, and filing a DePuy lawsuit.
