Depuy Asr Hip Replacement Should Have Been Recalled Earlier

Medical Experts said that the DePuy Articular Surface Replacement (ASR) hip systems

should have been recalled immediately when complaints on metal-on-metal hip implants started increasing. According to Australian medical experts, it took three years for DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. and its mother company Johnson & Johnson to recall its hip implants after evidence of its high failure rate started coming out. This resulted to thousands of reimbursements to Australians in recall claims by Johnson &Johnson .

The recall of the two DePuy hip implants was first done in Australia in 2009 with the United States and Europe following suit in August of 2010. The recall was implemented when the National Joint Registry (NJR) of England and Wales released the data taken from its study which suggested that the five-year failure rate of this product was approximately 13 percent. This data, according to some medical experts, have been available since 2006.

Also, in March of 2010, Johnson & Johnson's DePuy Orthopaedics announced that it was phasing out the ASR hip implants because of declining sales aside from data claiming that the implants also had a higher than normal failure rate. Pointed as the reason for the hip implants failure just five years after it was first used is its design. DePuy designed a shallower cup and removed the plastic liner from the inside of the implant because it wanted to give patients a wider range of motion. Instead, cobalt and chromium particles wear off from the device caused by the friction of the ball portion of the hip implant against the socket and fall into the soft tissue surrounding the implant area, leading to complications.

Now, evidence suggested that the revision rate is at 25 percent, and as more of the devices fail, some experts predict that within six years, it could reach up to 49 percent. The defective hip implant could only be removed by a revision surgery. Although DePuy promises to compensate patients revision surgery, lawyers said it is not willing to fully compensate those affected. Apart from the revision surgery cost, full compensation would include the pain and suffering, emotional suffering and financial loss as a result of having the defective implant.

Following the DePuy hip replacement recall were thousands of lawsuits and complaints filed. All cases filed across the country was transferred to the Northern District of Ohio and, with the consent of that court, assigned Honorable David A. Katz to handle it for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings last December 2010 as based on the ruling filed by the US Judicial Panel on MultiDistrict Litigation (MDL. According to the lawsuits, the ASR hip replacement was allegedly defectively designed and that DePuy knew that there were problems with the implant early on but didn't do anything to let patients or their surgeons know about the possible problems.

by: Katherine Russel

POST COMMENT

Trademarking Wine Monster Trademarks Fujifilm Finepix F200exr Analyze Do Not Overlook The Importance Of Handheld Metal Detectors Need Money Today? This Is The Best Way What Is A Tablet Pc? Beautiful Roses: You Can Grow Them New Moon Solar Eclipse In Sagittarius How To Survive Mercury Retrograde Mobility Enhances The Possibilities Of Document Management Change Your Life With Yoga Instructor Classes The Role Of A Personal Injury Lawyer The Moeller Method