ASR hip recall 25 articles

Internal communications among DePuy executives discussing how to handle metal-on-metal ASR hip problems were presented to jurors hearing the first of several thousand personal-injury lawsuits involving the faulty devices to go to trial. DePuy is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. According to the records presented, on September 18, 2009, Paul Berman, DePuy’s director of hip marketing, sent one of many emails to company officials warning that the metal-on-metal hip devices should be recalled given the alarming number of reports that the devices were failing. Mr. Berman wrote that he wanted to “reiterate my concerns” about the safety of the ... Read More

Court documents and the recent testimony given by DePuy officials during the first ASR metal hip case to go to trial indicate the company took very little action, if any, to warn prospective patients about the serious risks its all-metal hip implants posed. DePuy Orthopedics, a division of the Johnson & Johnson health care conglomerate, started selling its ASR Acetabular and Hip Resurfacing Systems in 2003 after the devices were fast-tracked through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval process. By 2005, DePuy began receiving complaints about the all-metal devices, which were designed to outlast conventional hip implants made with ... Read More

The first of several thousand personal-injury lawsuits accusing Johnson & Johnson of knowingly making and selling faulty metal-on-metal hip implants commenced Friday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles. Plaintiff Loren Kransky, a former North Dakota prison guard, received metal-on-metal hip implants made by Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopedics division in 2007 to relieve arthritis pain. But not long afterward, Mr. Kransky, 64, began experiencing many of the complications reported by others who received DePuy ASR implants: pain, swelling, difficulty walking, and a number of symptoms related to metal poisoning. On the first day of the trial, the plaintiff’s lawyer ... Read More

DePuy Orthopedics and its parent company Johnson & Johnson knew in 2008 its ASR metal hip implants were failing early at unusually high rates, but they continued to make the devices for several more months before finally recalling them in August 2010, newly released court documents show. The findings were contained in a number of pretrial depositions and internal company records unsealed before the scheduled start of the first trial over DePuy’s faulty implants on Friday. The case, which will be tried in California Superior Court in Los Angeles under Judge J. Stephen Czuleger. The trial will likely reveal a ... Read More

Documents unsealed ahead of the first faulty hip implant lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Orthopedics to go to trial show that company executives knew in 2011 that its ASR metal hip implants would fail in nearly 40 percent of patients within five years, but withheld that information. DePuy, a division of medical giant Johnson & Johnson, recalled its ASR XL Acetabular and ASR Hip Resurfacing Systems in August 2010 as evidence mounted that the hip devices, which consisted of a metal ball and metal cup, failed at unusually high rates. At the time of the recall, the devices ... Read More

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed new regulatory rules that, if passed, will require orthopedic device manufacturers to test their all-metal hip replacement and resurfacing systems for safety and efficacy before approval. The proposed measures come in response to alarmingly high rates of failure and injury associated with metal-on-metal hip devices, such as the ASR XL Acetabular and Hip Resurfacing Systems made by DePuy Orthopedics, which were recalled for safety concerns in August 2010 after being implanted in about 93,000 patients worldwide, including approximately 40,000 Americans. The FDA’s proposed order would require manufacturers to file a premarket ... Read More

Just over a decade ago, when orthopedic device manufacturers began making hip implants with all metal parts, some researchers warned that the metal-on-metal designs could pose a health threat. They knew that all artificial hip implants, whether made of ceramic, plastic, metal, or a combination of materials, shed particles into the blood and tissue through normal wear and tear. But, according to a New York Times report, “those warnings were not heeded, and now doctors and patients face a growing public health problem as one of the country’s biggest medical device failures unfolds.” At the same time, there has been ... Read More

An Irish woman who had both of her hips replaced with DePuy hip implants filed what is expected to be the first of many lawsuits against the orthopedic device maker in Ireland. Irene Pierson alleges in her lawsuit that the DePuy hip implants were “not of merchantable quality, and have both commenced to malfunction,” Ireland’s Kildare Nationalist reported. Ms. Pierson had her right hip replaced with a DePuy implant in March 2007. She was fitted with a DePuy implant in her left hip in September 2008. Ireland’s High Court granted Ms. Pierson approval to serve the defendants she names in ... Read More

Dozens of metal-on-metal hip replacement patients in South Yorkshire, Great Britain, are seeking damages from the manufacturers of the hip devices, alleging injuries ranging from device failure to toxic metal poisoning. According to The Star, 34 patients in South Yorkshire are suing DePuy Orthopaedics, maker of the ASR XL Acetabular and Hip Resurfacing systems, which the company recalled in August 2010 after medical data indicated a staggering number of the devices failed prematurely. Since then, patients have reported myriad problems, including intense pain, dislocation, immobility, bone fracture, muscle and tissue decay, nausea, and other severe complications linked to hip devices ... Read More

Plaintiffs from four states filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, its subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics, and related companies in a Madison County, Wisconsin, Circuit Court June 29, seeking damages from injuries allegedly caused by metal hip implants made by DePuy. According to the complaint, 21 plaintiffs from California, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri underwent hip replacement surgery, receiving DePuy metal-on-metal hip implants. However, the lawsuit alleges, instead of improving their lives, the devices malfunctioned and caused the plaintiffs to experience a spectrum of painful and crippling injuries, including bone and tissue loss, neurological injuries, cancer, liver and kidney damage, and other ... Read More