DePuy Hip Recall

DePuy Lawsuit Information

Attorney Fred Pritzker has represented people injured by defective hip replacements. He is heading up our team of lawyers representing people who had a DePuy ASR XL Acetabular System implanted during hip replacement surgery. Our investigation has found evidence that all patients who had the DePuy hip implanted may have a claim for money damages...

DePuy Hip Recall

DePuy Orthopedics Inc., a unit of the giant corporation, Johnson & Johnson, recalled two hip-repair implants, the ASR™ XL Acetabular System and the DePuy ASR™ Hip Resurfacing System. If you or a loved one received one of these products, you should read this information and contact us immediately.

The DePuy hip recall was made because these products exhibited an unacceptably high failure rate – more than two times the average failure rate. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Under generally accepted standards, no more than 5% of patients should have a revision within five years… But new, unpublished data from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales found that the two implants had rates of 12% and 13%. . . .”

Here’s why these devices fail and what happens to you as a result of this failure:

The two recalled systems use all-metal implants or caps to replace the ball-and-socket in hip joints, rather than using plastic or ceramic surfaces. These metal-on-metal replacement joints create tiny metal debris fragments that cause an inflammatory process in the surrounding tissue in some patients. Recent patient information from DePuy describes the problem:

Your DePuy hip implant is made up of ball and socket components that move against each other. These components are made of metal that wears over time and generates very small particles that can only been with a microscope…Patients may react to the particles, causing fluid to collect in the joint and in the muscles around the joint. While this condition may initially be painless, if left untreated, this reaction may cause pain and swelling around the joint and could damage some of the muscles, bones, and nerves around the hip.

In short, the replaced joint fails because the surrounding muscle, bone and nerves are damaged resulting in pain and disability. This, in turn, leads to another surgery in which the defective hardware is extracted and new (and different) hardware is re-implanted. This is called revision surgery. Unfortunately, this revision surgery is often worse than the original implantation surgery. It is technically more difficult, takes longer, puts the patient at greater risk of complications and the recovery process takes longer.

The revision surgery is also extremely expensive and will likely result in more patient out-of-pocket expenses, lost time from work, a significant amount of time in transportation and rehabilitation and, most importantly, a great deal of pain and suffering.