The first bellwether trial stemming from a federal multidistrict litigation involving the Wright Conserve metal-on-metal hip replacement is scheduled to begin in March of this year, court documents indicate.

According to a recent scheduling order, the Wright Conserve hip replacement bellwether trial is slated to start on March 9, 2015, and will take place in an Atlanta federal court.

The bellwether trial process is designed to conserve resources of the court when thousands of lawsuits are centralized in a single jurisdiction. Attorneys representing Wright Conserve hip claimants, as well as patients who were injured by similar hip replacements, will be closely monitoring this and other trials to see how the nationwide metal-on-metal hip implant lawsuits will be affected.

The Wright Conserve hip replacement has allegedly been associated with pain, swelling, symptoms associated with metallosis (metal ion poisoning), and other complications of premature device failure.

The Conserve hip implant lawsuit alleges the metal-on-metal design of the Conserve hip replacement resulted in the accumulation of excessive metal ions generated by the implants, which caused serious and debilitating complications including metallosis, pseudotumor formation, and premature failure of the replacement hip resulting in the need for hip revision surgery. The hip implant lawsuit also asserts Wright’s failure to properly warn consumers about its hip implant side effects.

The outcome of the Wright Conserve hip replacement bellwether trial may serve as an indicator of how future juries will react to evidence and testimony presented in hearings for similar claims against the hip manufacturer.

Metal-on-Metal Hip Complications

The Wright Conserve hip implant has demonstrated higher than normal failure rates. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received reports of more than 200 adverse events of hip implant device failures leading to severe pain in the hip and groin, loosening, and high metal toxicity in the blood because of the metal-on-metal design of Conserve’s hip implants.

While no recall has been issued yet, the Conserve complications alleged in Wright Conserve lawsuits bear similarity to those included in claims filed over the DePuy ASR Metal Hip Implant, as well as the Stryker Rejuvenate hip stems. Over the past few years, thousands of lawsuits have been filed over these metal-on-metal implant devices, many of which are no longer available on the U.S. market.

Because of its metal-on-metal design, the Wright Conserve hip replacement can cause a number of problems. The FDA warns that metal-on-metal hip devices like the Conserve hip replacement system can cause the following adverse effects:

• Pain in the groin, hip or leg
• Limp or decrease in ability to walk
• Swelling in or near the hip joint

In addition, metal-on-metal implants are known to cause metallosis. This is a condition caused by an excessive amount of metal particles in the blood.

Wright Conserve Hip Lawsuits

The Tennessee-based device maker currently faces scores of personal injury lawsuits from people across the country who allege injuries such as metal toxicity, infections, and bone and tissue damage. Court records indicate that nearly 400 Wright hip lawsuits are pending in in the Northern District of Georgia, where federally filed claims involving the metal-on-metal devices have been consolidated for coordinated pretrial proceeding.

In a regulatory filing dated Aug. 5, 2014, Wright disclosed that more than 800 product liability claims involving Conserve hip implants have been filed in state and federal courts throughout the United States.

Individuals who have allegedly suffered serious and debilitating complications due to the Wright Conserve hip replacement may be entitled to compensation for their injury-related damages.

The Wright Conserve Hip Replacement Lawsuit is Case No: 1:14-cv-03989-WSD, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.