Metal Poisoning and Sever Pain Result in Lawsuits Against DePuy Hip Implants

According to the Wall Street Journal, a Wells Fargo analyst estimated that DePuy Orthopedics could face $1 billion in liability costs over their ASR hip replacement. The latest estimates on the number of Depuy Hip lawsuit cases brought to date was reported this week by the Wall Street Journal, which also said that J&J bulked up its liability fund by $570 million last year to cover the potential cost of DePuy ASR settlements. All this stems from a series of issues related to the defective implant, both in its design and in its reactions with the patient’s body. Over 90,000 DePuy ASR XL Acetabular Systems and DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing Systems were sold before the hip replacements were recalled. 

The “second generation” metal-on-metal hips have become popular in recent years due to the belief that they are more durable than other types of implants. However, design issues may lead to an increased amount of small metal particles being shed into the body as the parts of the artificial hip rub against each other, resulting in metallosis and other DePuy Hip complications.  In October of last year, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) issued a warning about potential problems with metal on-metal hip replacements, indicating that patients and the medical community should be aware that pain months after hip replacement surgery may be a sign of metal-on-metal hip cobalt toxicity, and possible DePuy Hip metal poisoning. In addition, the FDA launched a new website last month to provide information about the risks associated with metal-on-metal hip replacements.

According to allegations raised in many of the suits, it is the design defects cause an increased risk of problems from microscopic metal particles that are shed from the DePuy Pinnacle hip implant when parts of the metal-on-metal hip system rub against each other. The DePuy ASR was approved as a substantially equivalent design to the DePuy Pinnacle hip, which appears to be causing the same or worse problems as the ASR. Last year, the FDA’s MedWatch adverse event reporting system registered at least 548 complaints about DePuy Pinnacle problems, with many reports indicating that the implants failed years before they were supposed to.