A New Hampshire man who in 2007 underwent a total left hip arthroplasty – a surgery to replace the musculoskeletal joint – is suing the hip replacement device’s manufacturer for marketing a product that allegedly released dangerous shards of metal into his system.

In his hip implant lawsuit, William P. asserts that problems with the Zimmer Durom Cup forced him to undergo painful and risky revision surgery to remove the device, which caused the muscle surrounding his hip to disintegrate as a result of metal ion levels building up in the fluid surrounding the Zimmer Durom Cup.

Thousands of patients with metal-on-metal devices have reported the same experience as William: high ion concentrations of cobalt and chromium in their systems as well as adverse tissue reactions. Metal-on-metal hip implants are known to fail at higher rates than traditional implants with plastic bearings.

In addition to Zimmer, hip replacement manufacturers DePuy Orthopaedics, Smith & Nephew, DePuy, Wright Medical Technology Inc. and Biomet have also come under fire.

Patients have experienced side effects ranging from dislocated hips, leaking of toxic substances such as chromium or cobalt, cancer, degenerative heart disease, loss of bone strength resulting in bone fractures, tissue death on areas surrounding the implant, non-cancerous tumors around the hip implant and cobalt poisoning or metal poisoning caused by chromium or cobalt particles leaking into nearby tissue or the bloodstream.

The Stryker Rejuvenate device is named as a defendant in some 4,000 pending product liability lawsuits filed in both state and federal courts alleging problems with the Stryker Rejuvenate or ABG II hip replacement systems. Both were recalled in 2012 after reports that the hip replacements quickly corroded and failed.

Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle some 8,000 hip implant lawsuits filed by patients who had risky revision surgery to replace the company’s metal-on-metal hip implants, which failed at higher rates than traditional hip implants.

DePuy Synthes Joint Reconstruction business unit, a division of Johnson & Johnson, has recalled that hip implant. More patients are expected to undergo revision surgery for the implants in the future.

Zimmer temporarily withdrew the Durom Cup from the U.S. market in 2008 to update its warnings and surgical instructions. Approximately 12,000 people, including William, had already had the device surgically implanted when it was taken off the market.

A medical expert specializing in adult reconstruction and joint replacement told Modern Medicine that problems caused by implants typically fall into three categories: those needing revision surgery (which costs about $100,000); those who are not symptomatic or suffering any pain, but whose MRIs indicate that they have adverse tissue reactions and elevated metal ion levels (they may also require revision surgery); and those with elevated ion levels who need to be monitored.

In September 2014, a federal panel formed a multidistrict litigation in Minnesota, where some 2,000 defective hip implant lawsuits have been consolidated. The Zimmer cases have been sent to New Jersey. Zimmer has paid close to $400 million in settlements to people injured by the Durom Cup and expects to pay hundreds of millions more.

In his hip replacement lawsuit, Williams accuses Zimmer of fraud, negligence, breach of warranty and other charges.

Had Zimmer not allegedly concealed the Durom Cup’s defects, such as an early failure rate and known complications, William would not have opted for the Durom Cup, according to his hip replacement lawsuit.