Smith & Nephew Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Failure

Smith & Nephew Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Failure. Over the past ten years, metal on metal (MOM) hip implants have come under fire over their increased risk of premature failure and other serious complications.

Case in point, recently a lawsuit was filed against Smith & Nephew claiming that the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing (BHR) system failed prematurely, lead to metal blood poisoning known as metallosis and caused serious local tissue reactions known as pseudotumors.

Lydia Constantini filed her claim in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Smith & Nephew sold a defective metal-on-metal hip implant and then tried to hide the increased risk of major complications from patients and doctors.

According to Constantini, after she underwent hip resurfacing surgery with the Smith & Nephew Birmingham Hip Resurfacing implant in 2008, she developed severe pain and complications. Constantini underwent hip revision surgery in 2013 after the Smith & Nephew Birmingham Hip Resurfacing implant failed.

There was evidence of metallosis and pseudotumor formation from the release of cobalt and chromium metal debris into the hip joint and the blood stream. Both metals are used in the Birmingham Hip Resurfacing implant.

Female Hip Implants at high risk for failure

Female patients are especially at risk of premature failure and other complications. The BHR has a 26 percent failure rate in women after ten years, but Smith & Nephew failed to warn about this unacceptable risk of premature failure to the doctors and to patients. The hip implant manufacturer industry benchmark failure rate for a hip implant device is no more than 5 percent at ten years.

Smith and Nephew BHR Recall

After many complaints of unacceptable Smith and Nephew Birmingham hip failure rate within a few years of implantation, Smith & Nephew recalled the BHR System from the U.S. market in September 2015.

The Smith & Nephew Birmingham hip was one of the first metal-on-metal hip replacement devices on the market, and many experts were alarmed about its safety even before it was approved by the FDA.

According to lawsuits, Smith & Nephew was aware of the stark and obvious evidence that the BHR systems were wearing down quicker and more severely than anticipated. Despite this knowledge, Smith & Nephew failed to take corrective action to address the failure problems and did not report to the FDA promptly.

Smith and Nephew Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Multidistrict Litigation

In May, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) agreed that all product liability and personal injury lawsuits over Birmingham Hip Resurfacing be centralized and consolidated before U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake in the District of Maryland for pretrial discovery and bellwether trials.

If you think you may have Smith & Nephew Birmingham Resurfacing metal hip device and are experiencing pain caused by metal corrosion or have suffered premature hip failure requiring full revision and emergency care, please call Dr. Shezad Malik Law Firm at 888-210-9693.