DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit

Our lawyers are now investigating hip replacement lawsuits against DePuy Orthopedics. Our law firm began investigating DePuy hip claims in March. Since then DePuy did what we thought they should have done a long time ago: recall their ASR hip replacements.

Background

The DePuy Orthopedics ASR hip replacement system is a metaldepuy-on-metal prosthetic implant. Specifically, DePuy made the ASR XL Acetabular System - a hip socket - and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System, a partial hip replacement.

DePuy started selling these devices in July 2003 and began instantly making a fortune. But in recent years, DePuy sales began to slip to the point where DePuy said last year it was going to phase out its hip replacements because of slowing sales. Why did sales slow down?

The realization of a high failure rate of ASR hip implants has become increasingly obvious in recent years to the point where most surgeons were steering patients clear of DePuy hip replacements. Finally, in August 2010 there was a DePuy hip replacement recall, hip replacement surgeons responded with a "we knew that already" shrug. Problem is, by the time we got to this point, 93,000 DePuy ASR hip replacements had been implanted.

If you are not one of those 93,000 people and you are reading this, put yourself in their shoes. You have a hip that is so compromised that you need a hip replacement in the first place. You get the hip replacement. Now, you are staring at a potential secondary surgery to fix the hip replacement that was supposed to fix you. And your hip replacement surgeons are telling you that each time they go in, things are not quite the same. It is a tough spot and a spot that could have been avoided had DePuy made a hip replacement that was not defective.

Making matters worse, there are also concerns about metal-on-metal hip implants in general. Some DePuy ASR XL hip implant patients are suffering from metal toxicity from the wear and tear of metal-on-metal. These metals are rolling around in the body as Chromium and Cobalt debris from their metal on metal hip implants. The excess wear causes necrosis or tissue injury. Because the DePuy implants were failing, the amount of metal-on-mental friction was even greater with these hip replacements. The long term impact of all this metal? The real answer is that no one knows. Death of the tissue but, it can also damage the nerves and bone. The medical literature has reflected concerns for a number of years about metal on metal hip implants causing toxic metal debris to be released in the body. However, most other metal on metal implants do not have the design problem of the DePuy that causes excessive wear and unusually high releases of metal debris. It is possible that most or maybe even all of the DePuy ASR hip implants will have to be removed or replaced. The metal toxicity can cause substantial damage if allowed to continue.

The DePuy hip replacement lawsuits are product liability claims. Few DePuy hip replacement claims are medical malpractice claims against the doctors. The real claims are against Johnson & Johnson/DePuy who made a defective hip replacement, knew they made a defective hip replacement and did nothing about it.

DePuy Hip Recall Liability Management Program

DePuy has promised to "make things right" for patients with these defective hip replacements. This has, somewhat incredibly, lead to another DePuy class action lawsuit being filed. The class action claims that after the DePuy ASR recall, the company deceived patients by agreeing to make things right and in exchange, getting access to hip recall victims' medical records. The lawsuit argues that DePuy has essentially promised victims nothing in exchange for something. Reportedly, they are paying hip replacement surgeons to convince patients to give DePuy the explanted hip replacement which is, of course, a potentially important piece of evidence in any potential suit against DePuy. Honestly, it is hard to believe their intent is to destroy evidence. It is probably not. Then again, it is incredible that DePuy put and left this product on the market in the first place.

What to Do If You Have a DePuy Hip Replacement Subject to the Recall

If your DePuy hip replacement was subject to this recall, contact our hip implant recall lawyers at 1-800-553-8082 or click here for a free no obligation Internet consultation or request for information.