Product Liability Lawyer Blog
There are a various reasons a person might have total knee replacement. Some suffer sports injuries. Others have incurred catastrophic injury, such as being in a serious car accident. Then there are those who suffer chronic issues, such as years of arthritis pain.
While a broken knee as a result of a serious car accident can lead to the need for a total knee replacement, the most common reason people see an orthopedic surgeon to consider an artificial knee implant is because they have been suffering from osteoarthritis for years, and the pain is at a point where it has become difficult to walk or do any of the tasks required for daily living.
According to a recent news feature from Reuters, a total knee replacement is being suggested as a way to “turn back the clock” on serious and painful osteoarthritis. Researchers have seen that after a patient undergoes a total knee replacement, he or she is likely to have substantially less pain and increased range of movement and leg function compared to the time prior to the operation. However, it is important to understand that, following a knee replacement to treat serious osteoarthritis, a patient will not feel as good as they did when they were young and pain free, but they may still feel a great deal better.
Unfortunately, as our Boston knee replacement injury attorneys can explain, many people are expecting to feel like they did 30 or even 50 years ago after having a knee replacement surgery. While this is generally not true, is makes senses that patients would have these high expectations, because that is exactly what medical device commercials lead viewers to believe. These commercials feature people in their 20s and early 30s running and performing other active tasks and are not generally depicting what a patient’s life will be like following total knee replacement surgery.
The reason these commercials tend to be misleading is because medical device companies that manufacture artificial knees and other artificial joints are often far more concerned about their quarterly profit and loss statements than they are about the best interests of their patients. This can lead to medical devices being rushed to production, withholding information from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about safety concerns, and intentionally failing to conduct tests to determine long-term safety.
We have seen a variety of ways in which artificial knees have been defectively designed, and this has caused them to break free from where they are mounted to a patient’s existing bone structure, to become loose and start rocking in place, or for the joint itself to completely fail. These devices are supposed to last between 10 and 20 years form the date of implantation, so when we see failures occurring within a year or two of surgery, this could indicate there is a serious problem with the joint. You should contact an experienced defective knee injury attorney as soon as possible to see if you have a case, especially if you are told you need to have a second or subsequent surgery to correct the problem.
Call the Boston Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.
Additional Resources:
Knee replacement may ‘turn back the clock’ for arthritis pain, August 14, 2015, Reuters, by Lisa Rapaport
More Blog Entries:
Knee Reconstruction Market to Exceed $5 Billion by 2020, June 17, 2014, Boston Defective Knee Replacement Injury Lawyer Blog