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With promises of an improved quality of life, you put your trust in an orthopedic surgeon to successfully replace your hip or knee, so that you can live normally again. However, your new pain-free lifestyle may have only been momentary, as the debilitating pain associated with your hip or knee returns just a few years later, when the implant fails. Once again your daily living is impacted.
Having to repeat an agonizing and invasive surgery is emotionally and physically daunting, as well as costly. In addition to the pain, when the joint replacement devices breakdown, chemicals are excreted into the bloodstream causing a toxic buildup in the body. This leads to painful inflammation of the joint and a tumor-like growth (pseudo-tumor), along with the need to undergo additional medical tests and procedures.
How common is a defective hip or knee replacement in Texas?
There has been a significant increase in the number of complaints received by the federal government regarding failed replacement devices. Since January 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received more than 5,000 reports of failed metal-on-metal hip devices. While these hip implants should last more than 15 years, they have been failing after only a few.
The Houston defective product lawyers at Vujasinovic & Beckcom, P.L.L.C., are Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a distinction held by only two percent of Texas attorneys. The experienced and knowledgeable attorneys at the firm handle all types of cases involving manufacturers of defective products, including DePuy and Zimmer, as both of these manufacturers have been associated with a high rate of failure for hip and knee replacement devices.
In Texas alone, there have been several cases filed this past year against manufacturers. In April and May 2011, multiple lawsuits were filed against DePuy for failed hip replacement devices. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., a division of Johnson and Johnson, Inc., voluntarily recalled its ASR XL Acetabular metal-on-metal hip implant in August 2010 due to a five-year failure rate of approximately 13 percent.
Metal-on-metal hip replacement devices, in which the ball and socket are both made of metal, have become one of the most costly medical mistakes to date. Unfortunately, several metal-on-metal devices were sold without being tested and without the manufacturer tracking the performance in patients.
Failed hip and knee replacements cause serious problems
Failed hip replacement devices and failed knee implants have been associated with a high rate of:
Symptoms of failed hip and knee replacements
Defective hip implants, such as the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular, as well as defective knee replacement devices, in particular Zimmer NexGen implants, have caused a number of major problems for patients, including significant:
What types of compensation are available for victims of failed hip and knee implants?
Victims of failed implants may be entitled to compensation for their:
There are approximately 700,000 hip and knee replacement surgeries conducted in the United States yearly. Recent studies have shown that the newest technology for hip and knee replacement devices, including the metal-on-metal implants, do not perform better than the less expensive older models. The excruciating pain from the all-metal devices comes from, in part, particles of cobalt and chromium that shed quickly due to wear and become a part of the bloodstream. This also leads to an adverse tissue reaction in some patients, known as ALVAL (aseptic lymphocyte-dominated vasculitis associated lesion), and forms a soft-tissue mass (pseudo-tumor) in others, that may be toxic.
Do you have a case?
The Houston defective joint replacement attorneys at Vujasinovic & Beckcom, have significant experience representing victims of defective products, including hip replacements. You may have a case if the defective implant caused your pain and suffering. You should consult with a Board Certified Houston personal injury lawyer at Vujasinovic & Beckcom, who can evaluate your claim. Call the law office toll free at (888) 473-1258 or complete the contact form on this page for a free initial consultation. Be sure to order our free report that further explains hip and knee replacement lawsuits. This report is free to affected patients and their families.
