DePuy Recalls Hip Replacement Implants With High Failure Rate

Johnson & Johnson, which owns DePuy Orthopedics, recalled thousands of its ASR model hip replacements today. Back in March of 2010, the New York Times reported that the FDA had received over 300 complaints from ASR patients since the beginning of 2008. The Times reported then that a majority of the patients that complained have undergone revision surgery to have the hips redone.

The revision surgery to have a hip redone is more complicated and has more risk than a first time hip replacement. The surgeon must ream out more bone from the pelvis and cut tissue that has scar tissue from the first surgery. A second surgery also exposes the patient to a risk of infection present in any hip surgery that can lead to numerous complications.

This recall by DePuy comes after both Zimmer Holding, Inc and Stryker Corp. have had problems and lawsuits concerning high failure rates for their hip implants. In spite of the risks to the health of consumers most medical device manufacturers making hip implants had opposed the creation of a national medical device registry. A Medical Device Registry is part of the new healthcare law recently enacted by Congress to track failures of medical devices so they can be recalled earlier and prevent injury to larger numbers of consumers.

I hope that an effective medical device registry under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be a step in the right direction to better track the safety and effectiveness of medical devices so that problems with devices such as hip implants can be identified sooner before thousand of patients have to suffer additioanl surgeries.