March 20, 2017 - What is Metallosis? If you have been implanted with a metal hip implant, you have probably heard the term “metallosis,” even if you do not have a recalled metal hip. Metallosis is a condition which occurs when the metal components of a hip device rub against one another during periods of activity, shearing away microscopic metal shards. When those tiny metal ions begin building up in the soft tissues of the...

January 04, 2017 - If you or a loved one are the recipient of a Pinnacle hip device, you may have serious concerns about the safety of that device and questions about how the Pinnacle may adversely affect your health. The Pinnacle, unlike DePuy’s ASR hip device, has not been recalled, rather it was...

December 21, 2016 - Dangers of Pinnacle Hip Devices - Those with a Pinnacle implant could face severe pain in the groin, thigh and hip regions, significant inflammation, dislocation of the device, and failure of the entire hip replacement system. Because the Pinnacle is a metal-on-metal hip device, there is a strong likelihood the device could experience fretting and corrosion, causing small metal ions to shear away, either...

May 12, 2015 - Despite the more than 6,600 lawsuits against DePuy for the Pinnacle hip implant, a recall has not been issued, although DePuy did discontinue the use of a metal liner in mid-2013. Following the removal of the metal liner, Johnson & Johnson and DePuy deemed the Pinnacle a safe hip implant, and even in the face of mounting lawsuits, continue to defend the Pinnacle’s safe design...

A Sullo & Sullo Attorneys Plaintiff Selected for DePuy Pinnacle Bellwether Case in the Northern District of Texas U.S. District Court - HOUSTON, TX, March 12, 2015—A court order on February 18, 2015, established ten bellwether trials for the Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Pinnacle metal hip litigation. One of the Sullo & Sullo plaintiffs is among those ten bellwether cases selected for trial...

While both the Pinnacle and the ASR have caused significant amounts of harm to patients who were implanted with the devices, there are noteworthy differences between the two models including...

DePuy, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, cornered a significant portion of the metal-on-metal hip implant market with its ASR Hip Resurfacing System and ASR Acetabular System. The ASR implant was based on its being substantially similar to another DePuy hip implant—the Pinnacle. The Pinnacle has suffered its share of problems as well, although it has not yet been recalled. 

Revision surgery, although it seems the logical answer, must be carefully considered. The revision procedure is complex, risky and painful, and can affect your future quality-of-life. A revision surgical procedure can last as long as five hours, leaving the patient more susceptible to blood loss, infection and nerve damage, and requiring a recovery period of six weeks or longer. In some cases...
 

One of the theories regarding the design issues associated with the Ultamet metal-on-metal Pinnacle liner is that the device has one of the lowest clearance levels in the industry—the only other implant with a clearance level this low is the recalled DePuy ASR. Experts believe there is a very narrow margin for proper placement of the Pinnacle hip implant with the Ultamet liner...

Cobalt and chromium ions which enter the surrounding hip tissues can cause chronic pain in the hip, groin or thigh, inflammation, loosening of the Pinnacle implant, deterioration of the bone and tissue, and the necessity for revision surgery. Despite the fact that the FDA has received over 1300 adverse reports related to the Pinnacle, DePuy and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson...

According to court documents, over 5,600 DePuy Pinnacle lawsuits are pending in an MDL which is currently underway in the Northern District of Texas, U.S. District Court. These lawsuits allege injury from the metal-on-metal version of the DePuy Pinnacle hip implant which utilizes the Ultamet metal-on-metal Pinnacle liner. Plaintiffs are questioning whether the DePuy Pinnacle should have been recalled along with the DePuy ASR, which was recalled in August, 2010. The first federal trials for the Pinnacle are expected to begin in September, 2014.

Legal analysts believe that due to the lawsuits currently filed against DePuy for harm suffered from the Pinnacle as well as those which are likely to come later, Johnson & Johnson—DePuy’s parent company—could be liable for billions of dollars in damages. The federal Pinnacle cases have been consolidated in an MDL in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas under Judge James Kinkeade. While depositions for these federal Pinnacle cases began in January, 2013, the first trial is not scheduled until March, 2014.

If you are the recipient of a metal-on-metal hip implant, you may have been exposed to cobalt and chromium metals accumulating in your body. In the all-metal hip implants—or the implants which utilize a ceramic ball yet still use a metal liner—when the implant recipient engages in activity, the metal components rub against one another, creating friction. This friction releases microscopic metal ions into the body which will either travel into the bloodstream or will become lodged in the surrounding tissues.

Metal-on-metal hip implants have been in the news frequently over the past couple of years for a very good reason—metallosis and hip implant failures are increasingly common among those with all-metal hip implants. Even the most conservative estimates point to as many as 7,500—or 3% of all those with metal hip implants—affected by cobalt and chromium poisoning and hip implant failure.

Each day in the United States hundreds of people enter hospitals to undergo surgical procedures. Replacement hip surgery has become much more common among older Americans who want to continue to live an active lifestyle. In fact, there are over 400,000 hip replacement surgeries performed every year. Hip implants made their first appearance in the 1970’s, and these implants were made of a combination of materials, including plastics, ceramics and metals. The metal-on-metal hip implants were created in the hopes of giving patients more durability and years of wear from their hip implant.

The DePuy Pinnacle metal hip implant is the same monoblock type of implant as DePuy’s ASR however has a few key differences. Of course the primary difference is that the ASR was recalled in 2010 while the Pinnacle is still on the market. Because of the recall of the ASR—which gained FDA approval based on being substantially equivalent to the Pinnacle—there are serious concerns regarding the Pinnacle as well. The Pinnacle received FDA approval in 2000, howevermany orthopedic experts believe that not only does the Pinnacle suffer from a defective design; it also has a propensity for early failure rates and metal toxicity.

Although Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary DePuy—the manufacturer of a variety of medical hip implant devices—are likely to settle with recipients of the recalled ASR hip device they are taking a hard line in defense of the Pinnacle metal-on-metal claims.

The U.S. Drug Watchdog has a goal of identifying every single one of the more than 130,000 Americans who received the DePuy Pinnacle hip implant constructed of a metal ball and joint, between the years of 2005 and 2010. In an effort to ensure no recipient of the implant who suffered harm is left behind, the initiative to reach all of those exposed to the potential dangers is considered extremely important.

In August of 2010 DePuy Orthopedics, Inc. recalled two of its most popular hip replacement systems—the ASR XL Acetabular and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System. The recall came on the heels of a study which indicated the five-year failure rate of these products was as high as one in every eight patients.

July of 2003 saw the worldwide introduction of the metal-on-metal hip replacement by DePuy, although these devices were not used for hip replacement surgeries in the United States until 2005.

Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of DePuy Orthopedics recently took a fourth quarter charge of over $3 billion dollars related primarily to their voluntary recall artificial hip implants—the DePuy ASR Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System.

DePuy hip implants were used widely throughout the world, beginning in 2003, and in the United States from 2005. Although concerns were raised regarding the safety of these hip implant devices, a recall by DePuy was not issued until August of 2010 when DePuy received data from the National Joint Registry showing the five year revision rate for the ASR hip replacement system was approximately 12-13%.

Johnson & Johnson recently reported over $3 billion in quarterly charges. The charges come primarily as the result of legal settlements and other costs associated with products liability issues the company has had and continues to have with some of the devices in its DePuy line of hip replacement implants.