DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit News
Patients continue to look at their legal options, including filing a DePuy hip replacement lawsuit following the DePuy recall in 2010. During the month of August of this year, DePuy Orthpaedics Inc, a part of Johnson and Johnson recalled its hip replacement system called the ASR XL Acetabular. The DePuy hip recall was based on a data from a study that indicated that over a period of five years, the failure rate would be one out of every eight patients or 13%. This meant that patients who already had undergone a hip replacement surgery would once again have to go for a revision surgery. Some of the reasons identified by DePuy were malalignment of components, loosening of components, dislocation, bone fracture, infection, pain and sensitivity to metal. Some of the additional problems that one may face because of the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular are necrosis, increased levels of metal ion in the blood, nerve and tissue damage, bone staining and muscle damage.
It was in the year 2005 that Johnson and Johnson was given approval by the FDA to introduce the DePuy ASR XL in the US market without any clinical trials in order to determine product safety. However, since 2008 the FDA has received more than 400 complaints from those who have undergone hip replacement surgery using the DePuy ASR XL. It was in March of this year, after a study revealed that the ASR products had a more than normal failure rate. It was found that around 12% of those who underwent hip replacement earlier would need a replacement surgery. It was in August of this year that the market witnessed the DePuy hip replacement recall when the company recalled its two ASR products after more than eighteen months after the first lawsuit was filed against the company. There are many people who feel that in fact this should have been done much earlier taking into consideration the number of complaints received during the year 2008 alone.
During the early part of 2010, DePuy Orthopaedics issued a statement stating that the DePuy hip replacement was being phased out due to a drop in sales. At no point in time was it mentioned that it was due to the high failure rate. According to the New York Times, it was in March 2010 that doctors as well as the patients were informed about the high failure rates. Despite informing the patients as well as the doctors about the failure of the product, no statement was issued for a DePuy recall and there were hot denials being issued stating that there was no recall of the product.
DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit
The past couple of months have witnessed a flurry of lawsuits being filed against DePuy as it has been alleged that the devices would fail in one out of every eight cases. People affected by this are filing lawsuits claiming costs not only for the hip replacement surgery but also towards the pain and damage caused by the DePuy devices. It is very likely that there will be thousands of lawsuits filed against DePuy considering that world wide there are more than 93000 people who have their hips replaced with the ASR implants.