DePuy Hip Lawsuits On the Rise After Recall

A series of DePuy hip lawsuits have slammed the orthopedics manufacturer DePuy Orthopedics, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, since the August 2010 recall of their ASR hip replacement system. The recall came only after two separate reports by the Australian National Joint Replacement Registry that linked the device to an extraordinarily high rate of revision surgery, and the National Joint Registry in the United Kingdom reported in 2009 that the number of revision surgeries related to the ASR device were unreasonably high. Newcastle University hospital also determined in 2008 that ASR recipients were at risk for high levels of chromium and cobalt in the blood, a condition which could lead to metallosis or metal poisoning.
It was only after the Food and Drug Administration’s adverse event reporting system, or AERS, was flooded with reports of DePuy hip complications from surgeons and plaintiffs alike that a recall was initiated, and DePuy ASR devices had already been implanted in 93,000 patients worldwide – about 37,000 in the United States.
Many of the lawsuits related to the DePuy ASR devices make the claim that the recall should not have had to happen in the first place – the device should have been safe enough as soon as it was introduced to the market, and there was some hesitation in the medical community when it was introduced due to the metal-on-metal nature of the device. A metal-on-metal setup has been known to cause complications in joint replacement systems more frequently than other types of device.
Around 10,000 recipients of the DePuy ASR device are eligible to file suit against DePuy, although experienced DePuy hip lawyers think that there could be more plaintiffs by the time litigation gets underway. The first trial could begin in a year or more, leaving plenty of time for new cases to be filed.
Johnson & Johnson, a multinational corporation with billions of dollars in yearly revenue, could be facing responsibility for settlements and damages that could amount to a billion dollars or more.
Due to the recall it is very likely that there will be a settlement in the future for most, if not all, of the plaintiffs who have filed DePuy hip replacement lawsuits.