More DePuy Hip Lawsuits Filed

New Brunswick, NJDePuy Orthopaedics, maker of the DePuy hip replacement products including the DePuy ASR and DePuy Pinnacle devices, reportedly faces approximately 1,000 lawsuits related to its devices. The lawsuits were filed after DePuy announced a voluntary hip replacement recall due to an unexpectedly high failure rate of certain DePuy hip devices.

According to The Wall Street Journal (07/08/11), DePuy faces approximately 1,000 lawsuits, filed in federal and state courts, related to its hip replacement devices. The lawsuits allege that DePuy, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which is also named in the lawsuits, knew about the high failure rate of its hip replacement devices but failed to recall the products from the market in a timely manner.

DePuy has defended its actions, saying it did not know about problems with the ASR hip replacement device until British data obtained in 2010 suggested a high failure rate.

Hip replacement devices are meant to last up to 15 years, which is important for patients who receive hip implants. With each revision surgery—in which a failed device is removed and replaced with a new one—the chance of complications increases. Patients who may otherwise have had a revision surgery in 15 years now find that they require revision surgery within five years of receiving their first hip implant.

Furthermore, revision surgery is not as simple as taking out one device and putting in another. In some cases, bone grafts may be used to ensure the new device fits properly.

Some patients say that in addition to having their device fail, medical tests have shown they have high levels of cobalt and/or chromium in their systems. They also say they've suffered pain and inflammation in the hip.

Since receiving reports of health problems in patients who received DePuy hip replacement devices, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered Johnson & Johnson to monitor the hip implants for health problems.

Meanwhile, as more patients experience problems with failure of their hip implants, more lawsuits are being filed. The Southeast Texas Record (07/11/11) reports a lawsuit filed by Judy Walters, who alleges that since she had ASR XL hip devices implanted, she suffered muscle damage, intense pain and problems when sitting or standing. She also alleges she suffered from metal shavings in her tissue. According to the lawsuit, which alleges negligence, failure to warn and manufacturing defect, Walters would not have had the ASR implanted if she had known about the failure rate.