DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit Filed Over Need for Revision Surgery

A former U.S. Army officer from Texas has filed a hip replacement lawsuit against DePuy Orthopaedics and its parent company, Johnson and Johnson, saying that the DePuy ASR hip he received was defective and failed after less than a year after it was implanted, requiring complicated and risky hip revision surgery. 

The DePuy ASR hip replacement lawsuit was filed by Jason Short, of Richmond, Texas, on September 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The case is one of a growing number of lawsuits against DePuy and Johnson & Johnson over their ASR Hip Resurfacing System and ASR XL Acetabular System; both of which were recalled due to a high failure rate.

A DePuy ASR hip recall was issued August 24 after the manufacturer acknowledged that their metal-on-metal artificial hip system may be prone to fail within a few years after it is implanted. Approximately 93,000 DePuy ASR hips have been sold, and new data suggests that about one out of every 8 may fail within five years, potentially resulting in pain and the need for additional hip surgery to replace the artificial hip.

The number of individuals who have filed a lawsuit over the DePuy ASR hip replacement has grown dramatically in the recent weeks since the recall. Although the recall does not mean that all implants must be replaced, doctors are recommending that patients return for an examination to determine whether the hip replacement is functioning as it is supposed to. As individuals discover that they have a recalled DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant, most are contacting attorneys to ensure that their legal rights are protected.

Last week, a DePuy hip replacement class action lawsuit was filed in Ohio on behalf of individuals throughout the United States who received one of the defective hip implants. Contrary to injury lawsuits like the one filed by Jason Short, the DePuy ASR class action suit is attempting to force the manufacturer to pay for necessary tests and medical monitoring that will be required for individuals who have not yet experienced problems.

In his injury complaint, Short indicates that he received a DePuy ASR XL Acetabular hip implant in December 2009 to repair damage to his hip that he received when he was seriously injured in an airborne operations accident at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, while he was serving as an officer in the U.S. Army. Following the surgery, it became painful for him to walk, move his leg and to stand up from a seated position, according to the lawsuit. Earlier last month, Short’s orthopedic surgeon told him that his DePuy hip implant had failed and he would need hip revision surgery to replace the DePuy ASR hip implant.

Revision surgery to replace a defective DePuy ASR hip implant can be complex and long, and is more likely to result in complications than the original surgery. This is because there is a reduced amount of bone to work with due to the bone lost to the previous implant. Patients who receive revision surgery to replace a hip implant are almost four times more likely to suffer a dislocated hip, the lawsuit claims.

A motion was filed last month to centralize all DePuy ASR lawsuits filed in federal courts throughout the United States in an MDL, or multidistrict litigation. If the DePuy ASR hip replacement litigation is centralized into an MDL, Short’s case will likely be consolidated together with other federal lawsuits for pretrial proceedings. However, if the cases are not resolved through a DePuy hip replacement settlement during pretrial litigation, each case may be remanded back to the district court where it was originally filed for a separate trial.