DePuy Orthopaedics Recalls Defective Hip Implants Due to Early Failure Rate

Introduction: If you or a loved one had injuries consisting of the failure of a defective artificial hip implant manufactured by DePuy Orthopaedics, you may have a lawsuit that should be pursued. Although our lawyers who handle hip implant lawsuits are located in Maryland (MD), Virginia (VA) and Washington, D.C. (DC), our drug litigation and medical product liability lawsuits are national in scope, and our lawyers who handle these suits are prepared to file lawsuits and litigate hip implant cases, claims and lawsuits across the country. Therefore, regardless of what state you’re from, please fill out the “Contact Us” form on the left side of this page or email us so that Ashcraft & Gerel, LLP can have a lawyer familiar with the litigation over defective hip implants contact you to discuss your claim and the potential for a lawsuit.

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DePuy Orthopaedics, a division of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, has recently announced the recall of two of its hip replacement products: the ASR XL Acetabular System and the DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System.  These are “metal on metal” hip replacement devices, which appear to have a high early failure rate in many patients.

More than 90,000 DePuy ASR hip implants have been sold since July, 2003, and new data suggests that one of every eight may fail within five years, requiring additional surgery to replace the artificial hip.  According to a recent New York Times report, the ASR device was cleared for use in traditional hip replacement through a regulatory pathway that did not require it to undergo clinical trials.  Since 2008, the FDA has received hundreds of complaints on these ASR devices and the vast majority of those patients needed surgery to replace the device soon after getting it.

According to data from the National Joint Registry (NJR) of England and Wales, the ASR XL Acetabular System fails in 13% of recipients within five years with the failure rate even higher in women.  Based on the data, the devices were withdrawn from the market in Australia in 2009.  In a letter dated March 6, 2010, DePuy revealed to doctors in the United States that data suggested a higher than expected failure rate with the devices.  In August, 2010, DePuy announced a recall of the ASR device in the United States.

Some medical experts maintain that the sales of these devices should have been halted much earlier based on the available data and also indicate that the full range of medical problems associated with the device, such as severe inflammatory response in some patients damaging muscle and other soft tissues associated with metallic debris from the ASR have yet to be fully explored.

If you think you or a loved one may have suffered an injury or damages as a result of a DePuy Orthopaedics hip implant, you owe it to yourself to speak to an experienced medical device – hip implant attorney to see if you have a case and to discuss the possibility of bringing a lawsuit to recover for your damages and injuries. The attorney will be able to ascertain if you have a claim for which a lawsuit can be pursued and whether the case and lawsuit can be brought to a successful settlement, verdict, award or other recovery, and the experienced lawyer will be able to advise you on any deadlines for bringing your legal claim for damages. Please contact the law firm of Ashcraft & Gerel, LLP to discuss your case with an experienced medical device – hip implant lawyer in our Medical Device Litigation Department.

The lawyers at Ashcraft and Gerel, LLP have been leaders in pursuing lawsuits involving unsafe drugs and medical devices. If you have heard negative comments about the disadvantages of class actions, rest assured that these cases are ordinarily handled on an individual basis, rather than in the procedural form of a class action, although alternative procedures are often employed by the Courts for handling the large numbers of cases encountered with mass torts in an efficient manner. Our attorneys have successfully brought about verdicts, settlements, awards or other recoveries in lawsuits on behalf of clients who have been injured by Fen-Phen, Rezulin, Propulsid, Phenylpropanolamine (PPA), Baycol, breast implants, AIDS tainted blood, Sulzer defective hip implants and many other drugs and medical devices.

We have a toll free number to reach an attorney to answer your questions with regard to your specific case. That number is 1-800-829-7037. Please ask to speak to Robert Samet, and he will place you in touch with one of our hip implant lawyers. If you would prefer, please feel free to fill out the “Contact Us” form on the left side of this page or email us. Please be sure to include your name, address, telephone number (if you wish to be called), email address and the exact nature of your question, so that our lawyer can provide you with the specific information you seek about the DePuy Orthopeadics hip implant recall lawsuits.