DePuy ASR MOM Hips in the News

There is a problem with metal on metal artificial hip implant devices, as highlighted on the NBC Nightly News on October 4th 2011.

According to medical experts and bio-engineers, the DePuy ASR, and DePuy Pinnacle hip implants are failing, or have failed at an unacceptably high rate. In August of 2010, there was a recall on DePuy ASR hip implant device. The ASR DePuy hip implants were surgically implanted on tens of thousands of US citizens between 2005 and early 2010.

Symptoms of a recalled ASR DePuy hip implant failure include pain in the hip region, problems walking, swelling of the hip, or lack of flexibility in the area of the hip. NBC Nightly News with anchor Brian Williams, called attention to the DePuy hip implant recall, and the issues with metal on metal hip implants on Tuesday October 4th 2011 news segment.

Unfortunately the fact is that the DePuy ASR hip implant was sold as the right hip implant for younger, or older adults, who wanted to maintain an active, or athletic lifestyle. According to medical experts there could be thousands of DePuy hip implant replacements in the US.

The medical experts indicate symptoms of the recalled ASR DePuy hip implant failure include:

• Pain in the Hip Region
• Problems While Walking or The Inability to Walk
• Swelling of the Hip
• General Discomfort
• Lack of Flexibility

To view the NBC Nightly News story about problems with metal on metal hip implants, or Depuy hip implant please go to http://NBCNightlyNews.Com & click on the Health Tab

Ohio Southern Federal District Court Case Number MDL No. 2197

According to a British orthopedists’ group a hip replacement made by Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy unit fails in the U.K. as often as 49 percent of the time, or four times what the company cited in recalling the device last year.

The British Orthopaedic Association and the British Hip Society said in a statement in March 2011 that data on the ASR XL Acetabular System from four surgeons show the rate of second operations, or revisions, ranges from 21 percent after four years to 49 percent after six years.

DePuy recalled both the ASR XL and an ASR hip resurfacing system in August 2010. At the time, the company cited unpublished data from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales saying 13 percent of ASR XL patients required second surgeries in five years, and 12 percent of patients with the resurfaced hips needed such operations within five years. Both devices use metal balls and sockets to replace ailing hips.

Only the ASR XL was approved for sale in the U.S., where 37,000 were implanted. New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J, the world’s largest health-care company, faces over a 1,000 lawsuits in the U.S. so far over the devices.

U.K. Implants
About 10,000 of the hips were implanted in the U.K., including 5,000 or so resurfacing devices and 5,000 of the ASR XL prostheses, also known as total-hip replacements.

Lawsuits Filed
Plaintiffs have brought product-liability, negligence and failure-to-warn claims against DePuy over the devices, and are seeking medical costs, lost wages and compensation for their pain and suffering. More than 350 lawsuits have been consolidated in federal court in Ohio, and more than 220 are pending in California state court. Another group of cases is pending in New Jersey state court.