Artificial Hip and Knee Revision Surgery Risk Higher Among Younger Recipients: Study

The findings of new research suggests that younger individuals who receive a hip and knee replacement may face a higher risk of requiring revision surgery to remove or replace the artificial implant. 

In a study published this week in the medical journal The Lancet, U.K. researchers found that younger joint replacement patients were seven times more likely than older patients to have to undergo revision surgery for a failed hip or knee replacement.

Researchers looked at data on more than 63,000 patients who underwent total hip replacement, and more than 54,000 patients who had total knee replacement surgery, between January 1, 1991 and August 10, 2011. The study conducted follow-up on the patients to a maximum of 20 years.

“The lifetime risk of requiring revision surgery in patients who had total hip replacement or total knee replacement over the age of 70 was about 5% with no difference between the sexes,” the study’s authors found. “For those who had surgery younger than 70 years, however, the lifetime risk of revision increased for younger patients, up to 35%.”

Researchers indicate that the findings challenge the wisdom of recent trends in performing hip and knee replacement surgery among younger and younger patients, and the study comes amid increasing concerns about the long-term safety of several recently introduced joint replacement systems.

A number of high profile recalls have been issued, and product liability lawsuits over defective hip and knee replacements have been filed by thousands of individuals nationwide in recent years, alleging that serious design defects should have been discovered before the implants were marketed for use among younger individuals.

One of the most recent was a Stryker LFit V40 recall, which was just announced last year, indicating that certain large-diameter femoral heads manufactured before 2011 may experience taper lock failures. This typically results in loss of mobility, pain, inflammation, adverse local tissue reactions, dislocation and the need for revision surgery, among other complications.

The action was taken after an investigative report published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in August 2016, which outlined five cases of catastrophic failure with Stryker Accolade and LFit V40 combinations, which noted that there was extensive corrosion in the V40 head and Accolade stem that caused the stem to fracture at the stem/head juncture.

There are a growing number of Stryker hip lawsuits being pursued in various different courts by individuals who experienced problems after receiving an LFit v40 femoral head due to problems involving premature failure, corrosion and cobalt metal blood poisoning.