subject: Recipients of Recalled DePuy Hip Replacements Face Serious Consequences of Failed Revision Surgeries [print this page] Recipients of Recalled DePuy Hip Replacements Face Serious Consequences of Failed Revision Surgeries
You may already know about some of the problems associated with DePuy's two recalled hip replacements. Recipients may to feel serious pain and severe metal poisoning by their implants' cobalt and chromium ions. Frequently, a timely revision procedure can resolve these problems, but sadly not all revision procedures are successful. You may want to know what happens when second hip replacements fail, whether they were manufactured by DePuy or not.
Recipients feel unnecessary pain. The hip replacement was supposed to reduce pain, allowing the recipient to return to a normal life. A failed revision procedure, depending on its severity, may leave a recipient in just as much pain as beforepain that the hip replacement was supposed to resolve.
Recipients lose some mobility. Similar to the above, but the hip replacement my come loose from the thigh bone it was attached to. Recipients may have less mobility and less balance when placing weight on the implant.
Second revision procedures (third hip replacement). This is a common resolution to the problem. Hip replacements are designed to last 15 years. That time may have come, or the second hip replacement was as defective as the first. Regardless of the circumstances, a hip replacement is an invasive medical procedure, and the more revisions a person undergoes, the longer the recovery period takes. Nerve damage and complications from the anesthetic may also occur.
Increased risks of leg length discrepancies and dislocation. You may be surprised that in the age of synthetic medical implants that surgeries result in unequal leg lengths, but it happens. The consequence of unequal leg lengths is a change in the recipient's gait and pain while walking. Surgeries also weaken bone and other tissues, leading to a greater incidence of dislocation.
The cost of a failed revision procedure to recipients can be enormous: pain, extended physical therapy, and additional surgeries. DePuy Orthopaedics does not wish to bear these costs beyond the recall and revision procedure, but a hip replacement lawyer, like those at the Rottenstein Law Group, will tell you that a lawsuit against the company can allow you to recover some of your losses.
