Personal Injury Law

Thousands of Illinois Patients At Risk For Injury Due to Defective DePuy Hip Replacement Implants

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

A new lawsuit has recently been filed in Illinois courts alleging that many medical patients have suffered following defective metal-on-metal hip implants made by DePuy Orthopaedics, reports AboutLawsuits.com.

Thirteen former patients have alleged that ASR hip implants made by the company were defectively designed and had to be replaced. Specifically, the challenged devices include the ASR Acetabular System implants and DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System implants. Over 93,000 of these implants were recalled by the company after startling data revealed that one out of eight recipients of the defective DePuy hip implants experience problems within five years of the surgical implant. Many of those victims eventually require a risky hip revision procedure to completely replace the defective DePuy product.

This new lawsuit filed by over a dozens of those victims claim that the company failed to appropriately test the metal-on-metal system, and even after realizing the problem, the company delayed in calling for the full recall. In particular, there were early concerns about problems with the part of the device known as the acetabular cup. The cup on the DePuy device was much shallower than on cups made by other orthopedic companies. The shallowness has consequently been shown to pose more risks for those receiving the implant.

The metal-on-metal his replacement system has been questioned repeatedly in the five years that it has been used. Medical device safety advocates explain that the product can shed metal materials into the body which in turn pose severe risk to soft tissues. The metal particles also pose risk of instigating inflammatory reactions and causing bone loss.

Our Chicago medical product liability lawyers at Levin & Perconti believe that no patient should suffer at the hands of defective and downright dangerous products like this type of hip implant. With the severity of the possible complications, it is vital for you to contact a product liability attorney as soon as possible if you may have been implanted with one of these problematic devices.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on October 11, 2010 (boomark / email).