DePuy Already Aware of the Hip Replacement Flaws Before the Recall
When DePuy Orthopedics, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary company, issued a worldwide recall of two hip replacement devices, the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System, they already knew about the products having a higher failure rate than expected. Specifically, according to a March 2010 New York Times article, DePuy Orthopaedics knew of problems with its hip replacements five months before the recall.
In Australia, where thousands of DePuy hip replacement products were sold, the complaints were continuously increasing for some time. According to Dr. Stephen Graves, an implant database director, DePuy’s plan to stop the products’ sales by the end of 2010 was already too late. Prior the August 2010 recall, DePuy already pulled out the ASR hip replacement implants from the Australian market.
In 2007, the FDA in the United States was entertaining 300 complaints about the ASR hip replacements. The ASR “cup” of the DePuy hip implants was not approved by clinical trials. The moment the hip implants started to fail, DePuy tried to blame the surgeons stating that they were installing the hip devices wrong. Soon after, DePuy began sending letters to the doctors informing them that the implants are less effective on women, shorter people, and persons with weak bones. Clearly, DePuy acted too slowly once it found its products were defective.
A bad metal-on-metal hip replacement such as DePuy’s can cause metal ions to scrape off the components. These ions then affect the surrounding tissues and enter the bloodstream, which leads to significant pain and damage. Typically, a hip replacement is supposed to last for 15 years, but many of DePuy’s hip replacements have been found to fail after only 5 years. A failed hip replacement device could mean another surgery, which is both expensive and cumbersome.
Because DePuy issued the product recall too late, a lot of patients are affected. If you are one of the DePuy hip replacement recipients, contact our hip replacement lawyer for a free consultation to protect your rights.
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