http://www.depuyhipreplacementlawsuit.com/ Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiary DePuy Orthopedics Inc. is in trouble in Britain after a British database suggested that its metal-on-metal hip implants fail within a span of six years. The information was based on the data gathered by the National Joint Registry for England and Wales which pointed that 29 percent of the patients have reported that their implants have failed after only six years of use. The New York Times reported that metal-on-metal implants can cause tissue and muscle damage.

1. As Published on the DePuy Hip Replacement Recall Website

2. Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiary DePuy
Orthopedics Inc. is in trouble in Britain after a British
database suggested that its metal-on-metal hip
implants fail within a span of six years. The information
was based on the data gathered by the National Joint
Registry for England and Wales which pointed that 29
percent of the patients have reported that their implants
have failed after only six years of use. The New York
Times reported that metal-on-metal implants can cause
tissue and muscle damage.

3. After the DePuy announced a worldwide recall of two
of its hip replacement systems, the ASR XL
Acetabular System and the DePuy ASR Hip
Resurfacing Platform, last August 2010, the National
Joint Registry for England and Wales started tracking
hip replacement problems in Britain. The release of
medical studies which suggested that the metal-on-
metal hip implants had a high failure rate in stark
contrast to its 15-year life expectancy prompted the
recall. However, more than 90,000 DePuy ASR XL
Acetabular Systems and DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing
Systems have already been sold worldwide before the
recall and about 40,000 of those were sold in the
United States.

4. The manufacturers had expressed
doubts that the rate could be as high
as the British registry is calculating for
the hip implants failure at six years.
However, with 17 percent of British
ASR hip recipients reporting failures,
even the registry’s five year failure rate
numbers are higher than the
manufacturer’s estimates. The
problems on metal-on-metal hip
replacements are not limited to the
recalled DePuy ASR implants as all hip
implants that feature metal-on-metal
designs appear to have a higher failure
rate than other types of artificial hips,
according to the registry data.

5. Although the registry data showed that compared to the
metal-on-metal hip implants which have a failure rate of
14 percent, other types of hip implants including
combinations of ceramic, plastic and metal only have a
4.7 percent failure rate after seven years. Part of the
concern for this high failure rate is a defective hip
implants potential to cause metal toxicity among its
recipients. According to Parker McDonald P.C., a Texas
law firm, which represents plaintiffs seeking remedies for
medical issues arising from the failure of metal-on-metal
hip implant devices, the cup in the recalled ASR device is
so shallow that it is susceptible to so called “edge
loading,” a situation wherein the joint’s ball strikes
against the cup’s edge and causes the implant parts to
rub together and chisel off debris that releases
microscopic ions of the heavy metals chromium and
cobalt into the body.

6. There may be a need to undergo a
risky hip revision surgery as metal
debris inside the body could result in
soft tissue damage, inflammatory
reactions, bone loss, genetic
damage, asceptic fibrosis, local
necrosis or other problems. Nearly
4,000 of the 5,000 complaints
received by the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) on metal-on-
metal hip replacement involve
DePuy. J&J has bulked up its liability
fund by $570 million to cover the
cost of DePuy ASR settlement as
more lawsuits are expected to be
filed against J&J despite the hip
replacement recall.