DePuy Orthopaedics Patient Suffers Fluid Buildup from Faulty DePuy Hip

October 1, 2010, 10:30AM. By Gordon Gibb

Ingle Farm, AUSTRALIAIt would have been no surprise to patients fitted with DePuy Orthopedics that DePuy parent Johnson & Johnson finally recalled the hip replacement system a year after halting sales of the device. Anywhere from 12 to 13 percent of DePuy patients—about one out of every eight—have required hip revision surgery to repair damaged joints just a few years, and sometimes months after the initial procedure.

Hip replacements are supposed to last upwards of 15 years. DePuy implants do not appear to hold that promise.

The 9/30/10 edition of the Advertiser relates the story of Ron Barnes, an 82-year-old Aussie who recently received a DePuy hip replacement system, only to need it removed soon after. He's due for hip revision surgery on October 4. While it isn't clear who is footing the bill for the surgery, it is obvious that Barnes has suffered much since his initial surgery.

Barnes reports that his DePuy implant caused an imposing pocket of fluid the size of a large grapefruit to form on his side, at his hip. Barnes, from Ingle Farm, says that he has had to have the fluid drained a number of times. "It fills up again within a week," he told the Advertiser. "It contains over half a liter of fluid each time."

The man said when the fluid was drained three months ago, a doctor found pieces of metal from his DePuy hip implant in the fluid drained from the hip. The DePuy metal on metal implant was roundly criticized by experts as having a flawed design.

DePuy pulled its troubled hip implant system from the market last year but resisted triggering a full recall until September of this year. The DePuy ASR hip resurfacing system and the ASR XL Acetabular System have both been recalled.

The manufacturer stopped short of advising all patients affected by the DePuy recall to have the hip replacement system removed. However the company did advise patients to have a qualified surgeon evaluate the performance and the condition of the troublesome device.

It has been reported that upwards of 93,000 patients worldwide have been affected by the recall. Many, including Ron Barnes, are considering becoming part of a DePuy hip replacement lawsuit.