The Persona knee implant is made by the company Zimmer. The implant consists of two main parts, one of which is the Trabecular Metal Tibial Plate. Reports and consumer complaints indicated that the component may have been defective, loosening from where it is positioned during surgery.

Zimmer’s Persona tibial plate is a metal plate that makes up part of a “total knee replacement.” Some tibial plates are implanted into bone with cement, but the Zimmer Personal tibial plate does not require cement, and it attached to the tibia via two pegs that are inserted into the bone. These pegs are supposed to “grow” into the bone to affix the implant to the bone.

X-rays from a number of patients who had had the Persona tibial plate installed show gaps between the tibial plate and the bone, however. This phenomenon is known to be a sign of “poor seating” of the plate. These gaps visible in X-rays are known as “radiolucent lines,” and are a sign that the plate is beginning to loosen, which is the ultimate sign that the plate is defective and is not functioning as intended.

This “poor seating” results in the Persona tibial plate, and the knee implant as a whole, to function sub-optimally. Roughly 38 percent of patients reported experiencing a defect with the plate. Symptoms of a failed Persona tibial plate reportedly include:

• loss of mobility
• persistent pain
• knee instability
• knee tightness
• inflammation

In 2015, the company voluntarily issued a recall of the Persona tibial plates. The recall involved all sizes and lots of the plates, and totaled almost 12,000 plates.The FDA classified the recall as “Class 2 Recall,” which is assigned to drugs and medical devices that cause supposedly temporarily or reversible harm to consumers.

In many cases, consumers who experienced symptoms from the defective tibial plates had to have their Persona implants removed and replaced to correct the problem.

Physicians cited the following conditions caused by the defective Persona tibial plate as meriting a revision knee replacement surgery:

• patella tracking issues
• instability
• globally tight knee
• component failure
• fracture
• loss of fixation
• loosening of device
• lack of ingrowth
• persistant pain

Though these issues can be fixed with a revision knee replacement surgery, having a second surgery is not without risk. In fact, a second surgery can come with more risks and complications than a first surgery. Risks incurred by patients who have a revision knee surgery include:

• fractures
• blood clots
• bone loss
• leg length discrepancies
• infection
• nerve, tissue, or blood vessel damage
• pain and swelling

In addition to physical injury, an additional surgery can be costly to patients in other ways. They can suffer financial injury of lost wages due to missed work, and emotional injury from the trauma of having major surgery, and from being away from family, friends, and activities they enjoy.

Lawyers are still conducting investigations into the nature and extent of injury done to consumers by the defective plates. Consumers who had a Persona tibial plate installed between  2012 and 2015 may qualify to file a Zimmer Persona tibial plate lawsuit.