Medical Experts are of the opinion that the DePuy Articular Surface Replacement (ASR) should have been undertaken as soon as the complaints on metal-on-metal hip implants grew in number. It had taken three years after evidence showed that the hip implants had a high failure rate, for a recall to be implemented by DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. and its mother company Johnson & Johnson, said Australian medical experts. Johnson & Johnson had to reimburse thousands to Australians inrecall claims as a result.
The recall of the two DePuy hip implants was first done in Australia in 2009 with the United States and Europe following suit in August of 2010. Data from a study conducted by the National Joint Registry (NJR) of England and Wales which indicated that the five-year failure rate of this product was approximately 13 percent prompted the recall. This data, according to some medical experts, have been available since 2006.
Aside from the data which stated that the ASR hip implants also had a higher than normal failure rate, Johnson & Johnson's DePuy Orthopaedics also said in March of 2010 that it will phase out the devices because of declining sales. The design of the hip implant was said to be the culprit why the device fails five years after it has been implanted. DePuy had wanted to provide patients with a wider range of motion and thus designed a shallower cup and removed the plastic liner from the inside of the implant. The design, however, allows cobalt and chromium particles to accumulate in the soft tissue around the implant area, after they wear off from the device resulting from the friction of the ball portion of the hip implant against the socket.
Some of the experts predict that as more of the devices fail, the revision rate will reach up to 49 percent because evidence now shows that the rate is at 25 percent. To remove the defective hip implant, a patient must have a revision surgery. According to lawyers, DePuy was willing to compensate affected patients for their revision surgery, however, it is not going to pay a full compensation. Aside from the cost of the revision surgery, full compensation would include the pain and suffering, emotional suffering and financial loss as a result of having the defective implant.
The DePuy hip replacement recall sparked the filing of thousands of lawsuits and complaints. The US Judicial Panel on MultiDistrict Litigation (MDL) filed a ruling transferring all cases filed across the country to the Northern District of Ohio and, with the consent of that court, assigned Honorable David A. Katz to handle it for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings last December 2010. The DePuy lawsuit alleges that the ASR hip replacement was defectively designed and that DePuy knew that there were problems with the implant early on but didn't do anything to let patients or their surgeons know about the possible problems.
The recall of the two DePuy hip implants was first done in Australia in 2009 with the United States and Europe following suit in August of 2010. Data from a study conducted by the National Joint Registry (NJR) of England and Wales which indicated that the five-year failure rate of this product was approximately 13 percent prompted the recall. This data, according to some medical experts, have been available since 2006.
Aside from the data which stated that the ASR hip implants also had a higher than normal failure rate, Johnson & Johnson's DePuy Orthopaedics also said in March of 2010 that it will phase out the devices because of declining sales. The design of the hip implant was said to be the culprit why the device fails five years after it has been implanted. DePuy had wanted to provide patients with a wider range of motion and thus designed a shallower cup and removed the plastic liner from the inside of the implant. The design, however, allows cobalt and chromium particles to accumulate in the soft tissue around the implant area, after they wear off from the device resulting from the friction of the ball portion of the hip implant against the socket.
Some of the experts predict that as more of the devices fail, the revision rate will reach up to 49 percent because evidence now shows that the rate is at 25 percent. To remove the defective hip implant, a patient must have a revision surgery. According to lawyers, DePuy was willing to compensate affected patients for their revision surgery, however, it is not going to pay a full compensation. Aside from the cost of the revision surgery, full compensation would include the pain and suffering, emotional suffering and financial loss as a result of having the defective implant.
The DePuy hip replacement recall sparked the filing of thousands of lawsuits and complaints. The US Judicial Panel on MultiDistrict Litigation (MDL) filed a ruling transferring all cases filed across the country to the Northern District of Ohio and, with the consent of that court, assigned Honorable David A. Katz to handle it for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings last December 2010. The DePuy lawsuit alleges that the ASR hip replacement was defectively designed and that DePuy knew that there were problems with the implant early on but didn't do anything to let patients or their surgeons know about the possible problems.