Some are calling metal-on-metal hip implants the most widespread medical implant failure in decades. Medical and legal experts estimate the hip failures may cost taxpayers, insurers, employers and others billions of dollars in coming years, contributing to the soaring cost of health care. The financial fallout is expected to be unusually large and complex because the episode involves a class of products, not a single device or just one company. There are many companies that manufacture and market metal-on-metal hip prosthetics, but the company most in the spotlight is DePuy Orthopaedics, a division of Johnson & Johnson.
The device’s ball and joint are made of metal and are failing at high rates within a few years instead of lasting 10 to 15 years or more, as artificial joints normally do. The wear of metal parts against each other is generating debris that is damaging tissue and, in some cases, crippling patients. Often times, this leads to metallosis, which can cause pseudo-tumors.
The incidents have set off a financial scramble. The New York Times recently reported that lawsuits and complaints against makers of all-metal replacement hips passed the 5,000 mark. Insurers are alerting patients that they plan to recover their expenses from any settlement money that patients receive. Medicare is also expected to try to recover its costs. However, this occurs in almost any lawsuit where a plaintiff is injured and a third-party has paid medical expenses related to that injury. The problem here is the grand scale of that recovery.
The New York Times reported that until a recent sharp decline, all-metal implants accounted for nearly one-third of the estimated 250,000 hip replacements performed each year in the United States. Most of that decline can be attributed to the recall of the ASR hip, which some estimate to have been implanted in 40,000 patients in the United States. As of October, some 3,500 patients had filed a lawsuit involving that device.
Some 500,000 patients have received an all-metal replacement hip, according to one estimate. A new study found that no new artificial hip or knee introduced during a recent five-year period — implants that included some of the all-metal hips — were more durable than older devices, and 30 percent were worse. The numbers on this are stifling. Does this mean that metal-on-metal technology, whether it involves hips or knees, is a complete failure?
Unfortunately, there is no data on the number of all-metal hips, or any prosthetic hip for that matter, that have failed prematurely in the United States because the outcomes of orthopedic procedures are not formally tracked by our government or private companies. However, by analyzing data from overseas and comparing that data to the estimated numbers in the United States, tens of thousands of patients in our country may have to undergo operations over the next decade to replace the implants. This is the conclusion of Dr. Art Sedrakyan, a researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, who is studying the hip problem.
DePuy would not comment on how much it had paid in recall-related costs. But a spokeswoman, Mindy Tinsley, said in a statement that DePuy was working with patients and insurers.
Along with the ASR-related cases, DePuy also faces over 560 lawsuits in connection with the all-metal version of another hip model, called the Pinnacle. DePuy has not issued a recall of the Pinnacle because the company says that the model is performing well. Nevertheless, Pinnacles are being replaced and the costs for their replacement are being borne by Medicare, insurers or patients themselves.
If you or a loved one have had hip replacement surgery and have been implanted with a defective DePuy hip, you may be entitled to compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages and other injuries. Our firm is currently investigating claims for those people who have been implanted with DePuy hip replacement devices, both ASR and Pinnacle. If you would like a free case evaluation, please contact Booth Samuels toll free at 1-866-515-8880 or at booths@pittmandutton.com.
