A woman has filed a lawsuit against DePuy after she had to undergo ASR hip revision surgery.

Plaintiff Vita C. said she was implanted with a DePuy ASR hip implant system in her left hip in July 2009. Vita said shortly after the implantation, she began to experience a variety of problems, including:

• Extreme pain
• Discomfort
• Soreness
• Malaise
• Swelling
• Loss of energy
• Immobilization
• Tissue damage
• Bone damage
• Chromium and cobalt poisoning

As a result of her deteriorating complications, Vita underwent ASR hip revision surgery in June 2017. She alleges she continues to suffer physical, mental, financial and emotional injuries because of a diminished quality of life as a result of her DePuy ASR hip implantation and subsequent explantation.

ASR Hip Revision Surgery Lawsuits

Vita’s ASR hip revision surgery lawsuit joins a multidistrict litigation in an Ohio federal court.

DePuy’s parent company is Johnson & Johnson, which paid $4 billion to settle 8,000 lawsuits over the ASR hip implant system. Most of the those hip implant lawsuits accused the pharmaceutical giant of knowing the metal-on-metal hip system could cause metal poisoning, also known as metallosis.

The design of the ASR hip implant causes metal parts to work against one another. Over time, small shavings of cobalt and chromium metals may accumulate in the surrounding tissue, which reacts by becoming inflamed and collecting fluid. The hip becomes sore and swollen and the metal ions eventually enter the blood stream, causing metallosis.

Tissue damaged by these small metal shards can die. The only way to eliminate the continuation of metal poisoning is to have ASR hip revision surgery to remove the offending components.

Unfortunately, side effects of the defective hip system are not limited to the hip area. Metallosis can interfere with almost every system in the body. Among the problems patients have experienced that have required ASR hip revision surgery are:

• Degenerative heart disease or cardiomyopathy
• Impaired renal function
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Hearing impairment or deafness
• Skin rash
• Pseudotumors around the hip implant, causing pressure and inflammation
• Cancer due to toxic metals entering the system
• Dislocated hip
• Reduction in bone strength or structure, causing easy fracturing
• Implant loosening
• Bone death, creating spontaneous dislocation or fracture

These same complications were seen in patients who received DePuy’s previous hip implant model, the Pinnacle hip implant system. Even though Johnson & Johnson allegedly knew the Pinnacle hip system caused these metal-on-metal problems, the company still designed the ASR based on the failed Pinnacle.

A number of surgeons allegedly approached Johnson & Johnson to express their concerns that the number of complications they were seeing was too high and urged Johnson & Johnson to quit marketing the ASR.

The ASR Hip Revision Surgery Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-dp-20061-JJH and is part of the DePuy ASR MDL, In re: DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2197 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division.