Johnson and Johnson and its subsidiary, DePuy Orthopaedics, makers of the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular System and the DePuy Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System, have faced numerous lawsuits over their metal-on-metal prosthetic hip units. The DePuy ASR settlement issued in November 2013 followed a voluntary recall established by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2010.

The FDA issued the recall after U.K. data revealed an alarming 13% failure rate of DePuy ASR hip prosthetics that led to numerous difficulties including early revision surgery. The recall affected 93,000 units globally and of that figure, 37,000 units were located domestically. It was unclear how many had been implanted versus just distributed at the time of the FDA announcement.

The DePuy ASR settlement was set to compensate some of the patients that had experienced severe problems after being implanted with the metal-on-metal prosthetic. These problems included:

• Tissue death surrounding implant
• Bone weakening around implant leading to fracture or hip dislocation
• Swelling, severe debilitating pain
• Metallosis or metal poisoning from cobalt and chromium components leading into bloodstream
• Malignant or non-malignant tumors developing around implant
• Development of cancer, related to metallosis
• Heart disease
• Complete failure of hip prosthetic requiring hip revision surgery and new prosthetic implant

According to the official ASR Hip Settlement website, the DePuy ASR settlement was distributed in phases. The first distribution was given to patients that had to have their ASR hips removed through hip revision surgery prior to Aug. 31, 2013, and met all other necessary criteria. The second part of the DePuy ASR settlement agreement allowed for patient compensation of prosthetic recipients who had revision surgeries between Aug. 31, 2013 and Jan. 31, 2015.

On March 3, 2017, the DePuy ASR settlement was extended to include patients having their revision surgeries to replace ASR prosthetics up to Feb. 15, 2017. This is commonly known as the 2017 extension agreement. Although the July 19, 2017 deadline to enroll in the original settlement phase which includes the 2017 extension agreement has passed, it is important to know that you are not alone in your suffering or without legal recourse.

DePuy ASR settlement enrollments are complicated, and experienced product liability attorneys can assist individuals who are interested in filing a potential claim. As more and more people come forward with DePuy ASR hip failures outside of the timeline, the issue may be revisited by the courts.

If you feel you or a loved one has been damaged by the implantation of a DePuy ASR hip prosthetic, you may qualify for a free initial consultation. Successful plaintiffs may receive compensation from the DePuy ASR settlement for their pain and suffering. It could also result in thousands of needed dollars to pay medical bills.