Personal Injury Lawyers
Archive for October, 2010
DePuy Orthopaedics Finally Recalled ASR Hip Replacements
Monday, October 11th, 2010
For several years now, there have been reports that the ASR Hip Replacement is a defective medical device. The Australian joint registry approached the ASR’s manufacturer, DePuy Orthopaedics, a Johnson & Johnson company, and asked that the ASR be withdrawn, but the company refused until confronted with statistics showing the device’s high rate of failure. However, the company did not decide to recall the product in other countries until a second national joint registry showed that the ASR had a failure rate of 12-13% within five years, despite the device’s projected 15-year lifespan. Many of those failures led to patients having multiple replacement surgeries, ongoing pain, and increased disability, but DePuy did not initiate a recall until it had already decided to phase out the implant due to declining sales.
Some of the failures of this defective product are related to the ASR’s design as a metal-on-metal joint. These types of implants shave off metal filings during normal wear and tear. These filings can irritate and even kill nearby tissues. When this happens, it leads not only to failure of the ASR, but requires complex surgeries to correct, surgeries that may have to be repeated several times before you have a working hip joint. The metal filings can also enter the bloodstream, spread throughout the body, and cause system-wide effects that may include kidney failure and heart problems.
If you or a loved one has suffered due to the failure of an ASR hip implant, the product liability lawyers of Kalfus & Nachman, Attorneys at Law, can help. Contact us today to learn how we can help you.
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