DePuy ASR XL Acetabular Hip System Lawsuit Filed by 80 in Wisconsin

A group of 80 Wisconsin residents have filed a lawsuit over the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular Hip System, alleging that they will face a lifetime of health problems due to issues with the metal-on-metal hip replacement implant, which was recalled last year.

The product liability lawsuit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against DePuy Orthopaedics and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson. The complaint alleges that all of the plaintiffs received a defective DePuy ASR hip that resulted in injuries.

Hundreds of similar DePuy ASR hip lawsuits have been filed by individuals throughout the United States. All federal cases are centralized and consolidated as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio under Judge David A. Katz. A number of DePuy ASR hip implant lawsuits have also been centralized at the state level in New Jersey state court.

In addition to the individual injury lawsuits, there are a number of DePuy class action lawsuits seeking to force the company to pay the medical expenses for testing for anyone who received an ASR implant and must have it checked to make sure it isn’t failing or causing metal poisoning.

A DePuy ASR XL Acetabular Hip System recall was issued in August 2010, after the manufacturer acknowledged that data so far demonstrated that about 12% of these hips may fail within five years. However, as individuals with one of the recalled hip replacements continue to be monitored by their doctors, it is expected that the DePuy ASR failure rate will eventually be much higher.

Metal-on-metal hip replacements, which use cobalt and chromium in their construction, currently account for about one-third of the 250,000 hip replacements performed each year in the United States. However, in recent years, concerns over problems with metal-on-metal hip replacements has been growing.

As the metal hip replacement parts rub against each other, microscopic particles of cobalt and chromium may be shed into the body, which can result in metal poisoning, also known as metallosis. This may result in soft tissue damage, inflammatory reactions, bone loss, genetic damage, asceptic fibrosis, local necrosis or other problems that may lead to the need for a risky hip revision surgery.

The FDA has requested metal hip manufacturers to provide more data on metal poisoning and metal implants.