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RLG Responds to Report of Higher Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement Failure Rates in Women.

RLG Responds to Report of Higher Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement Failure Rates in Women

February 19, 2013

Rochelle Rottenstein, principal of the Rottenstein Law Group.

Rochelle Rottenstein, principal of the Rottenstein Law Group.

More women than men require repeat hip replacement surgery within three years of receiving an implant, according to a recent CBS story.

RLG, a metal-on-metal hip replacement law firm, has been following metal-on-metal hip lawsuits, noting with concern the growing evidence about the devices’ failure rates.

The study mentioned in the CBS story affirms an October 2010 report from the RLG on studies of the hip failure rate comparison. Women were more than 30 percent likelier than men to require revision surgery, according to CBS. This was true for recipients of metal-on-metal devices such as the recalled DePuy ASR, the Smith & Nephew R3, and the Stryker Rejuvenate and other non-metal-on-metal devices. The study, co-authored by Dr. Art Sedrakyan, associate professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, followed more than 35,000 hip implant recipients.

Defective Medical Devices

“For years, studies have shown that women were at greater risk in what is already a risky surgery,” said Rochelle Rottenstein, principal of RLG. “This new study is more evidence that metal-on-metal hip implant recipients need to be especially cautious of the side effects and risks associated with these devices.”

Failure rates and alleged metal poisoning side-effects have been at the center of an ongoing DePuy ASR trial in Los Angeles, In re: Loren Kransky and Sheryl Kransky v. DePuy, Inc., et al. (BC456086, Los Angeles Superior Court). The ASR was recalled in August 2010. Johnson and Johnson subsidiary DePuy said at the time of the recall that the ASR hip replacement system had a 12 percent failure rate, but an Australian device registry later found that failure rate to be closer to 40 percent, according to Bloomberg. There are currently more than 10,000 lawsuits pending against Johnson and Johnson because of the ASR, in federal courts (MDL-2197) and state courts.

Another metal-on-metal hip implant, the Stryker Rejuvenate, is the subject of a pretrial consolidation of multiple lawsuits in New Jersey Supreme Court, In re: Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Stem and ABGII Modular Hip Stem Litigation (296, Bergen County, New Jersey). Scheduled to begin on Feb. 20 is the initial case management conference for the consolidation.