DePuy Had Idea of Hip Replacement Issues Long Before It Announced the Recall
In the United States, approximately 250,000 hip replacement procedures are performed every year. Out of that frequency, only about 1-3 percent of recipients require corrective surgery of the original implant. This small population should be manageable for regulators to quickly identify and track defective hip replacements. Unfortunately, the U.S. does not have a national artificial joint registration system. Without a registration system in place, in addition to the lag in time it takes for a hip replacement to malfunction, companies like DePuy were able to sell 93,000 hip replacements worldwide undetected. DePuy was able to sell 93,000 hip replacements undetected worldwide due to the fact that there is no regulatory system in place and it takes a long time for hip implants to malfunction. As a result, the current DePuy hip replacement recall has affected thousands of patients.
Australia and the United Kingdom are two countries that do have artificial joint registries in effect and were able to detect the defective implants immediately.As early as 2007, the National Joint Replacement Registry in Australia reported higher than normal failure rates of the DePuy hip replacements. In 2009, DePuy took subsequent action and voluntarily withdrew its products from the market. In a similar situation, the National Joint Registry of England and Wales was also prompt in discovering defective hip replacements. Researchers at Oxford University published a study showing that 3.4 percent of 660 DePuy hip implant recipients experienced signs and symptoms associated with metallosis. These studies also showed that 155 patients who received another company’s metal hip implants did not experience any similar side effects.
At the same time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration received several hundred complaints about the metal-on-metal device, but without a national registry to regulate these defective implants, no action was taken. Many surgeons have also come forth, claiming that they alerted DePuy as to the complications caused by their implants early on, but received little to no response from the company. The public was not aware about the seriousness of this issue until the media began reporting about DePuy’s higher than normal failure rates in 2010. Public outcry in 2010 from media reports about the high failure rates of the DePuy implants along with pressure from the FDA finally forced DePuy to initiate a recall in August of 2010.
It is obvious that DePuy was aware of its defective products, but did nothing. The company has shown a blatant disregard for the health and safety of its consumers. Victims receiving defective hip implants and who want proper punitive damages should consult with an experienced lawyer handling these types of cases.Details regarding ongoing litigation can be found on the DePuy hip replacement recall website.
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