It’s a novel idea that actually makes sense – the consumer group, Consumers Union, wants hip and knee implants to come with a warranty. In case a medical device fails the patient prematurely, the patient would not have to carry the burden of the costly revision surgery. This idea is […]

Lawyers preparing for trial in product liability cases, such as Searcy Denney, can never comment on settlement talks – but that has not stopped Bloomberg News from speculating that Johnson & Johnson may be close to offering more than $3 billion to settle its recalled him implant cases in the U.S. […]

Many of our clients who have hip prosthesis wonder if they should have an image taken even though they are not experiencing any pain. A new study suggests that may not be a bad idea. Published in the May issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, researchers find […]

The Biomet MDL (multidistrict litigation) was established for the organization and litigation of individual personal injury lawsuits against Biomet in the fall of 2012. In February of this year, the MDL contained 132 individual lawsuits. The count now stands upwards of 180 individual lawsuits, and it is still growing every […]

In a 1993 published study, 148 retrieved modular hip prostheses of mixed titanium cobalt and chromium were examined to determine if they had corroded while implanted in humans. Significant corrosion was observed and it didn’t matter whether the hips were metal or a combination of metal and ceramic or other […]

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a Safety Communication to set some general guidelines for physicians and patients who have metal-on-metal (MoM) hip implants. Last month the agency also issued a proposed order that would require MoM hip manufacturers to submit premarket approval (PMA) applications before they […]

A patient with a metal-on-metal or any hip replacement that causes symptoms or problems requires that the individual become his/her own best advocate. First, make an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for evaluation which includes not just a physical exam but an examination of fluid around the joint/ soft tissue […]

When our clients discover that their metal-on-metal (MoM) hip has failed and never went through U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for safety and efficacy, they ask – how did that happen? Most Americans do not understand that medical devices are largely unregulated, even for those devices that are […]

This study published in the December issue of Arthritis Care & Research is the first to look at the risk factors that could lead to a revision after a primary total hip replacement (THR). In the U.S. population, identified by Medicare claims from 29 states, patients who were younger, taller […]

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is fighting a patient lawsuit and seeking to have it dismissed on the grounds that the company did warn patients of the potential for metal erosion and the need for revision surgery. This California case was filed by plaintiff Loren Kransky in December 2010, just after […]