DePuy ASR Lawsuit Filed Over Problems with Metal Hip Replacement

A Florida woman has filed a lawsuit over problems with her DePuy ASR hip implant, which is the first of what many expect to be a number of suits over alleged design defects with the hip replacement system.

The DePuy ASR lawsuit was brought by Kathleen Margenau this week in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers. Margenau received the ASR hip implant in March 2008 and alleges that she immediately began experiencing pain and weakness in her hip and quadriceps. Just over a year after receiving the implant, Margenau’s hip replacement suffered what her doctor called a “catastrophic failure” and the device was replaced with an artificial hip system from another manufacturer.

DePuy, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, has ceased production of the ASR hip implant and is phasing it off of the market under increasing concerns about the safety of the medical device. However, the company has denied that it has issued a DePuy ASR recall on the implants due to safety problems.

The DePuy ASR is a metal-on-metal hip replacement system developed in 2005. Health care professionals have increasingly been warning about problems with metal-on-metal hip implants, which can shed metal particles into the body. The particles can damage soft tissue, cause inflammatory reactions and lead to bone loss.

Between 2007 and 2009, reports of problems with the DePuy ASR hip began to spike, with nearly 100 recipients reporting problems in 2007, more than 200 reporting problems in 2008, and more than 300 reporting problems in 2009. Last year, U.K. researchers studied 660 patients who had received metal hip implants from DePuy Orthopaedics and found that 3.4 percent suffered from adverse reactions to metal debris. Surgeons are warning that one to three percent of all metal on metal hip implant recipients may experience hip implant problems, and possibly need to have the devices replaced, due to metallic debris.

The same month DePuy announced that the device would be phased out, the company sent a warning letter to doctors noting that the implants had a high failure rate, particularly in smaller individuals.

Margenau’s lawsuit alleges that DePuy was aware of the problems by the time she received the implant in 2008, but failed to warn patients and doctors. She is seeking an undisclosed amount of compensatory damages and legal fees.