Articles Posted in DePuy Hip

Each year over 330,000 hip replacement surgeries are performed in the United States. A total hip replacement surgery, known to doctors as arthroplasty, traditionally involves cutting through most of the patient’s muscle tissue, tendons, and bone surrounding the original hip joint. An artificial hip is then anchored to the bone using a long metal spike and possibly medical-grade cement.

While elderly Americans and athletes may require a new hip due to their natural hip being broken, most patients are undergoing hip replacement surgery to alleviate the pain of arthritis. Doctors are telling prospective patients a new hip will allow them to essentially live as they did when they were years younger before experiencing any hip trouble.

The problem is many patients who undergo total hip replacement surgery will experience significant pain and suffering as result of defective artificial hip devices, which can loosen, deteriorate or completely fail within a short period of time following surgery.
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Actor Steve Carrell joked with David Letterman about his hip replacement surgery during a recent appearance on the talk show. According to a news feature by People Magazine, Carrell talked at length about the hip replacement surgery he had last year.

The 52-year-old actor said he hurt his hip during an old hockey injury and was walking with a limp before having hip replacement surgery. He took a few months to recover and is walking fine after the surgery. Carrel said the surgery cost around $10,000, and Letterman pointed out that they give you the old hip to make soup.
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Standing on the top step of the dugout of a major league baseball stadium for hours a day is tougher than it looks. Especially for managers who have already endured a lifetime of sports related-injuries. According to a recent news article from CBS, Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle is going to have a long overdue total hip replacement this offseason.

Hurdle had spoken with his team’s medical staff and his own doctors to delay the procedure as long as possible, and, with the tremendous pain caused by bone on bone arthritis, and team’s postseason run coming to an early end, he is electing to have the procedure done as soon as possible.
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According a recent news article from the Telegraph, researchers in England believe one day, hip replacement operations may no longer be necessary, as a result of studies involving an endangered Mexican salamander called an axoloti. The axoloti is an amphibian but lives its life under water and has been called a walking fish.

While these salamanders have been described as fish-like lizards are endangered because they are traditionally killed and eaten in Mexico, they have the remarkable ability to be able to regenerate parts of their own bodies if injured, including their brains and legs. While it is not the only organism that is capable of regenerating limbs, it is a rare ability for a vertebrate and, in addition, the axoloti also has the ability to easily accept tissues and even appendages from other organisms. It does this because its tissue merges with the donor material through the regeneration process.

Researchers are not necessarily interested in using the axoloti, but rather are seeking to learn how it is able to regenerate itself, so that human tissue could also be stimulated to regrow. It is believed that this would eventually replace the need for foreign material such as artificial hips from being implanted into the human body.
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A recent story from wfmynews2.com takes a closer at the problems many total hip replacement patients are facing do to dangerous and defective artificial hips. As millions of Americans are undergoing total hip replacements members of the “hip generation” are having more problems than they did before surgery.

DePuy manufactures one hip at issue. The DePuy artificial hip was made with a metal on metal joint. When the DePuy hip fails, several dangerous things can happen. As your Boston DePuy hip lawyer know, the metal-on-metal joint was marketed to lead people to believe that the smooth surface would better emulate a natural hip and allow people to live more active lives.

In reality, the metal on metal joint can break down and cause metal shards to build up in the tissue surrounding the artificial hip. This condition is known as metallosis and can cause pain, suffering, and the development of tumors. As a result of this and other issues, some models of the hip have been recalled. The obvious problem is that, unlike an automotive recall, where you just drop the car off at the dealership for a couple of hours, the patient must face another painful and risky surgery to have a new hip implanted. This means more time away from work and family, and more painful recovery and rehabilitation. The three hip replacement patients interviewed for the article had eight hip replacements between them.
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A recent article in the Washington Post chronicles the columnist’s experiences as he researches and then undergoes total hip replacement surgery at the age of 45.

The point is that hip replacement surgery isn’t just for older people anymore. The article details that the number of total and partial hip replacements performed each year has risen nearly 60 percent between 1998 and 2011. Within that group of people having the operation, the number of patients between the ages 45 and 65 has increased by nearly 20 percent, to account for just less than half of all hip replacement operations.

By the numbers, nearly 500,000 patients are having a total or partial hip replacement each year. The reason given in the article for the increase in hip replacements is that younger, more active people are no longer willing to live with the pain and suffering of joint disease anymore and would rather have this relatively common operation and get back to their active lifestyle.

While that is the good news, as your Boston hip replacement lawyer can explain, there is a corresponding number of patients that have experienced significant pain and suffering as a result of defectively dangerous artificial hips. Some patients were the victims of deceptive marketing and not given adequate warnings to allow them give an informed consent to the life-changing operation.
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For individuals who have suffered ill effects of a DePuy hip replacement on or before Aug. 31, 2013, there is important news from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division. The defendant company, DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. sought and successfully obtained case management order in a multi-district litigation action that would establish a cut-off date of Sept. 30, 2014 for all eligible claimants.

Our Boston DePuy hip lawsuit attorneys understand plaintiff attorneys did not object to this extension, and U.S. District Judge David A. Katz approved the request Aug. 13, 2014 in In re: DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation.

This cut-off date pertains to the $2.5 billion settlement reached by DePuy’s parent company, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.
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Our Boston hip replacement attorneys understand that representing a client injured by one of the now-recalled DePuy artificial hips requires a great deal of familiarity with defective medical product litigation. These can be extremely complicated cases.

According to a recent article, the State of Oregon has settled with DePuy Orthopedics for $4 million over deceptive marketing involving artificial hips.

This case involved a metal-on-metal artificial hip that was prone to failing. It has been established that the metal would deteriorate over time, producing shards of metal that have caused muscle damage and other complications requiring surgeries. The iron itself has been known to cause damage to the liver, kidneys, and other internal organs.
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DePuy is a subsidy of Johnson & Johnson, which is one of the world’s largest medical device companies. DePuy is also the manufacturer of a product called the DePuy ASR, which was implanted in around 100,000 patients worldwide. Unfortunately, the DePuy ASR products turned out to be very dangerous with a high failure rate and major risks for patients. Evidence indicates that not only was the defective medical device unsafe but also that widespread failure of the device may even have been hidden from surgeons working with DePuy to monitor for complications.

Throughout the United States, lawsuits have been filed against DePuy and Johnson & Johnson in order to obtain compensation for problems caused by the hip implant products. However, the complications and damages caused by the metal-on-metal hip implant products were not restricted to the U.S. alone. ABC recently reported a class action in Australia filed on behalf of hundreds of patients. Class actions allow many patients to recover compensation in one lawsuit, with all claims arising from a similar harm.
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DePuy is one of the leading manufacturers of hip replacement devices, but unfortunately is also the manufacturer with the highest failure rates. DePuy products including the Pinnacle Hip Replacement System and the ASR XL System were both designed for younger people undergoing hip replacements and were both made of all metal-components.

Wright Medical, which controls around two percent of the market for knee and hip resurfacing devices in the U.S., also made a metal-on-metal product that was very similar to the DePuy ASR. The Wright Medical product was called the Conserve Plus, and was part of a larger line of Conserve metal-on-metal hip implants.

Both Wright Medical and DePuy are facing thousands of lawsuits related to these metal-on-metal devices. Patients who had a hip implant and who are now experiencing problems should consult with a defective hip implant lawyer help pursuing a damage claim.
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