In the present, Johnson & Johnson is facing more than 10,000 lawsuits related to its metal-on-metal hip implants. On March 8, the company lost its first case after a Los Angeles jury determined the ASR hip replacements were defectively designed.
At the same time these implants – not just from Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopaedics division – are garnering negative attention for the painful side effects and difficult revision surgery, the New Brunswick, N.J.-based company decided to stop sales of these and ceramic-on-metal hip implants.
Johnson & Johnson claims, based on press statements from May 17, that the recent influx of lawsuits holds no influence on their decision; instead, sales in the U.S. and Europe dropped from 20 percent to two percent over the past six years.
Both Johnson & Johnson and DePuy recalled the ASR XL Acetabular system and ASR hip resurfacing system in August 2010. At the time, a study revealed the five-year revision rate for the products was over 12 percent. Since the recall, and others following like Stryker’s in 2012, the FDA has called for more extensive research of metal-on-metal hip replacements. Doctors, claiming they were not informed of the risks associated with these products, have stopped recommending metal-on-metal implants to patients.
After surgery, pain, swelling, infection, walking problems, joint loosening, fracture, dislocation, and noise plagued patients. While such symptoms associated with hip implants eventually disappear, for many recipients of DePuy, Stryker, and other metal-on-metal replacements, the signs persisted, and patients have had to face difficult revision surgeries because of it.
Metal-on-metal implants, as well, have been found to shed small particles into the body, resulting in ions entering the bloodstream. Signs of this occurrence have included a skin rash, cardiomyopathy, sensory impairments, psychological changes, renal functioning impairment, and thyroid dysfunction.
Based on a recent press release, Trantolo & Trantolo is now taking on cases and representing clients who were recipients and experienced the alleged negative effects of metal-on-metal hip implants.
