Following high failure rates of metal-on-metal hip replacement devices it has been announced that they are being banned for use in National Health Service Hospitals in England.
The failure rate has been reported as high as 4 in 10 cases which led to the regulators ban following health watch dog research. Surgeons in England have expressed concern that the joint devices wear and fail prematurely, with some leaking ‘toxic’ metal.
Two models have been removed from the market and thousands of patients in England and Ireland who have been implanted with the devices have been advised that they should undergo annual medical examinations and testing.
The new rules say that the NHS should stop using hip implant devices with failure rates of more than 5% at the 5 year mark which means nearly every metal-on-metal hip implant device would be banned.
A study of all hip surgery conducted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has revealed that most metal-on-metal hip devices had unacceptably high failure rates that fell below NICE standards. In fact, the DePuy orthopaedic ASR was tied to a secondary revision surgery in nearly 25% of cases in the first 5 years following original implant surgery.
In the United States Johnson & Johnson recently started to settle some of the 11,000 lawsuits it faces over the ASR device. Hundreds of patients in Ireland have also commenced legal proceedings against DePuy Orthopaedics seeking damages for product liability, negligence and breach of duty.
Liam Moloney, Healthcare Solicitor in Naas is acting on behalf of many of these patients.
