http://www.depuyhipreplacementlawsuit.com/ - The use of graphite compound maybe helpful in designing safer hip replacement devices, research says.

1. As Published on the DePuy Hip Replacement Website

2. The use of graphite compound maybe helpful in designing safer hip replacement devices, research says. Graphite, which comes in flakes, originates comes from nature-grade, carbon-rich metamorphic rock. The use of graphite was based on a recent study funded by the National Institutes of Health that was published in the medical journal, Science.

3. “ Graphite has been used as a lubricant for over a century. It is a classic lubricant, and it appears to form naturally,” the international news service Reuters quoted Laurence Marks as saying. Marks is professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University.

4. Implant device manufactures could utilize this study on graphite’s benefits to design safer metal-on-metal hip replacements, cites Reuters.

5. The Director of the National Joint Replacement Registry in Australia, Dr. Stephen Graves, states that “It is a complete untruth that DePuy did not have reason to withdraw the ASR before now; we have been telling them since 2007, but they allowed it to be used on thousands of people.”

6. “ Now that we have a handle on how they are working and why they are working well, we can start to design them to make them better,” Marks explains further.

7. Case of Johnson & Johnson’s Recalled Hip Devices

8. Specifically, in the case of Johnson & Johnson, there are around 93,000 recipients of the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System worldwide. Following the release of data showing defectiveness in one out of eight patients to whom they were implanted, the two device models were pulled back.

9. “ Many people could have avoided considerable pain, suffering and diminished quality of life if the company had acted in a responsible manner to known problems with these devices,” the Australian Senate said in a report.

10. Included in the list of the complications that may likely result from DePuy hip implants are loosening of hip device, additional hip replacement surgery, detachment of hip device from the bone, unexplained hip pain, hip dislocation, metal toxicity (metallosis), pseudotumors, genetic damage (genotoxicty), bone fractures, bone loss, tissue damages and cancer due to the presence of chromium and cobalt in the blood.

11. Escalating Number of Legal Complaints against Johnson & Johnson

12. As of early October 2010, there were already approximately 3,500 DePuy hip replacement lawsuits that have been filed against Johnson & Johnson in connection with their hip replacement devices. They were the suffering victims of DePuy product failures and defects, among them displacements, fractures and loosening.