DePuy Implant Woes Continue to Plague Patients


 
DePuy Orthopaedics, a subsidiary of healthcare product giant Johnson & Johnson, has been in legal battles for the past few years because of complaints regarding their hip implants, media sources say.   Claims from patients and testimonies from medical experts have formed the core of the legal problems alleging that DePuy failed to properly test and inform the public, along with regulators, about the dangers associated with their hip implants.

DePuy Orthopaedics claims that hip replacement surgery is an important procedure for maintaining healthy function and wellness for the elderly. It claims that as we grow older our bones can become weaker and eventually fail on us.   According to the company’s tagline promoting their line of hip replacement implants, they can provide a life guaranteed to be worry-free of the infirmities of age.  The company’s implants are usually recommended for clients over the age of 60, but there have been cases where younger clients are voluntarily undergoing replacement or resurfacing due to the desire to live a fuller healthier lifestyle as they approach their later years sometimes because of the company’s aggressive sales campaign.

Sadly, it seems that promise has not been delivered.   In the last five years DePuy has struggled to minimize its business losses while trying to battle legal claims that their hip implants were defective and the cause of serious injuries. The most prominent to date has been the DePuy XL ASR hip replacement and resurfacing implants which were recalled in late 2010 for defective complications as well as causing severe injury due to complications such as: metal ion toxicity, fractures caused by misalignment, dislocation or loosening.

DePuy has recently come out with a new implant called the Pinnacle system which, after extensive testing, regulators in the UK and Japan did not approve of.   In both countries medical experts have denounced the implant system as being prone to potential defects similar to the ASR system which would necessitate that 80% of patients who’ve already received this implant would require life-time monitoring for any possible complications as severe as the one’s reported with the ASR system.

Adding to the controversy already heaped on DePuy, regulators clam that Depuy’s executives had prior knowledge of the Pinnacle implant’s defective nature but chose to go ahead and sell it anyway which further damages the fragile credibility of the company as a trustworthy company.

The recall of the ASR system brought with it a dearth of lawsuits that DePuy still continues to contend with to this day with only more expected to arise from the continued sale of the Pinnacle system.

 

 

URL References:

bbc.co.uk/news/health-17192520
usrecallnews.com/2010/09/depuy-hip-replacement-recalled-asr-artificial-hip-systems.html


Online MarketingGregory Fraser - Find me on Bloggers.com
Add blog to our directory.