Elder Law

DePuy Hip Implants May Fail More Frequently in Women

By Levin & Perconti

Since the official August recall of certain DePuy hip implants, thousands of patients have taken steps to check the safety of their own devices. In the Chicago area many individuals who had hip implants in the last several years have discovered that their device was defective and in need of replacement. The problems with the device vary, with some patients suffering extreme complications shortly after their surgery and others experiencing difficulties only much later. In all cases, however, the cause of the hip concerns lie squarely at the feet of the DePuy officials who made the defective product and continued to push for its use after concerns about it arose.

Senior citizens in nursing homes make up a large part of the victims of this medical device error. Also, new data from the National Joint Registry and republished in Drug Watch suggests that woman are more likely than men to suffer problems with their DePuy hip implant. Specifically, patients with small hips (those with femoral heads below 50mm in diameter) were more likely to need revision surgery. Women have hips more frequently smaller than men, leading them to suffer more complications from the defective hips.

Over 93,000 patients have undergone surgery using the problematic implants since 2004. The recall was issued in August after much higher than average failure rates. Patients suffered a variety of maladies including bone fractures near the implant sight, implant dislocation, and metallosis. Metallosis is caused when fragment of metal break from the device and enter the body.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on January 02, 2011 (boomark / email).