Patients Wonder About DePuy Hip Recall Lawsuit Eligibility

One of the first questions posed to a DePuy hip lawyer when a patient begins to experience Depuy Hip complications is whether they will be able to afford treatment that could help alleviate the symptoms of the side effects. Some patients experience metal poisoning, hip implant dislocation, hip bone fracture, or loosening of the implant so severely that they need to undergo hip revision surgery.

Hip revision surgery is a second surgical procedure designed to remove and replace a patient’s hip replacement system in order to correct problems associated with it, which can include hip bone fracture and hip replacement failure. It can be an expensive procedure, and can be especially complicated because of scar tissue and inflammation associated with the previous hip replacement system. Healing time and physical therapy can take much longer than that which was needed after the initial surgery. Patients whose conditions necessitate hip revision surgery might have a better chance at receiving a Depuy Hip settlement from the manufacturer if they choose to file a lawsuit against the Depuy orthopedics.

Only a DePuy hip lawyer can accurately determine whether or not a patient’s DePuy hip replacement case will hold water in court.

DePuy Orthopedics has stated that patients who received the DePuy ASR hip replacement system or the similar DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement system should be monitored after their initial surgery in order to catch potential side effects quickly. Blood tests may be needed to determine whether or not there is a possibility of metallosis, or metal poisoning, which can take place after the metal-on-metal components in certain DePuy hip replacement systems scrape together, shedding small particles of metal that can make their way into a patient’s bloodstream.

A patient may also need x-rays to determine whether there is a possibility of hip implant loosening or dislocation or whether the surrounding bone is holding up sufficiently well. Although most legal experts agree that patients who have had hip revision surgery have a better case against DePuy, this does not completely exclude those who have not had the second surgery. Any patient who has experienced hip replacement side effects should consult a lawyer to determine their chances of filing a legitimate Depuy ASR hip lawsuit.