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DePuy ASR Hip Implants Recall

In August of 2010, Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopaedics division began a voluntary recall of their ASR™ XL Acetabular System and DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System product lines after several medical studies discovered that these lines of DePuy hip implants were causing patients that had received the products a number of severe side effects involving pain, swelling, and varying degrees of difficulty in walking, that was causing patients to require revision surgeries to correct.

Design Flaws

The symptoms being experienced by patients that had received DePuy hip implants were caused by serious issues with the design of the product. These implants were becoming loose where it interconnected with the bone in a percentage of patients, which resulted in sometimes severe pain. Additionally, if these implants became dislocated or fractured, allowing the ball and socket components of the implant to rub against each other in unintended ways, the components in the implants would become damaged over time. This contact would wear metal particles from the surfaces of the implant parts where the friction occurred and released them into the surrounding tissue. The metal particles in turn would often cause immune system reactions in the affected patients, resulting in fluid build up localized around the muscles and joints, initially causing swelling and pain, and over time often resulting in damage to nerve, muscle, joint, and bone tissues around the hip implant.

DePuy Orthopedics own website states that approximately one out of every eight patients who underwent surgery involving the DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System or the ASR™ XL Acetabular System would require a second surgery to repair the damage and in many cases involving the ASR™ XL Acetabular System, which was a full hip replacement product, replace the hip implant with a different type of artificial hip. These type of surgeries were extremely invasive, and due to the fact that they were typically performed on elderly patients carry a high risk of complications up to and including the death of the patient. And even when the surgery was completely successful, the recovery process would be long, difficult, and painful for the patients.

It should be noted that the DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System was never approved for use in the United States, and was mostly utilized abroad, while the DePuy ASR™ XL Acetabular System product line was marketed worldwide, including within the United States.

DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuits

The issues that arose from the DePuy Orthopedics product lines has resulted in a number of product liability lawsuits over their negligently designed and defective products, many of which have now begun to settle. Five plaintiffs in Texas who were injured by the defective hip implants recently received an approximately 500 million dollar verdict against Johnson and Johnson in this matter, and in one of the largest settlements in Australian history a group of about 17000 patients who had these implants in Australia received over 250 million for defective DePuy hip products. While Johnson & Johnson has continued to deny liability in this matter, the claims process remains ongoing. If you have been injured by these products an experienced product liability attorney can help you through the claims process when future settlements are approved.

Chicago injury attorney Steve Levin was interviewed by Lawyers & Settlement for an article on DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuits. Follow the link below to access the full article: Lawyers & Settlements December 2, 2010.

If you or a loved one received a DePuy ASR System hip implant and underwent further surgery, or if other injuries or medical complications arose, you may be able to seek compensation for pain, suffering, lost wages, and medical expenses. Contact Levin & Perconti at 877-374-1417 to discuss your legal options or complete our online contact form and an attorney will call you back shortly.

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