A patient and his wife have filed a DePuy hip replacement lawsuit after he allegedly suffered severe injuries from the device.

Plaintiff Steven J. says he underwent a right total hip replacement surgery in December 2009. He was fitted with a DePuy Pinnacle metal-on-metal right hip.

According to the DePuy hip replacement lawsuit, Steven allegedly suffered “the known and common problem of corrosion and friction wear believed to have caused amounts of toxic cobalt-chromium metal debris to be released” into the tissue surrounding the implant. The alleged result was pain and mobility problems.

Steven purportedly underwent blood tests that confirmed he had elevated chromium and cobalt levels in his blood and plasma. He anticipates undergoing a revision surgery to remove the allegedly defective Pinnacle device from his right hip in the coming months.

DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit Allegations

Steven’s DePuy hip replacement lawsuit alleges the company negligently designed the Pinnacle hip implant device in a way that was dangerous to anyone who had the device implanted because testing, designing, manufacturing and promoting the Pinnacle system was inadequate.

The DePuy hip replacement lawsuit says the company should have known of the possibilities of metal poisoning (metallosis) and the device’s susceptibility to loosening.

DePuy allegedly advertised the Pinnacle as a superior implant over its competitors. Marketing pieces promoted the device’s TrueGlide technology that allowed “the body to create a thin film of lubrication between the surfaces,” allowing for a more a more natural range of motion.

The Pinnacle device was advertised as “uniquely designed to meet the demands of active patients like you – and help reduce pain” and pictured a young woman trying on athletic sneakers at a shoe store.

The FDA has received more than 1,300 adverse event reports regarding the Pinnacle’s failure or complications, alleges the DePuy hip replacement lawsuit, which alleges the Pinnacle devices “may result in metallosis, biologic toxicity and high failure rate.”

Plaintiff Steven alleges the Pinnacle released toxic metal ions into his tissue and bloodstream. He also accuses DePuy of being aware that metal fragments can shave away from the Pinnacle device, resulting in metal poisoning of nearby tissue, bone erosion, and tumor development.

Because DePuy submitted an application for FDA approval that showed the Pinnacle hip implant system was sufficiently similar to other such products already on the market, the Pinnacle was approved through the FDA’s fast track program, which does not mandate rigorous product testing.

The DePuy hip replacement lawsuit alleges that if clinical trials had been done before the product went on the market, the company would have discovered in the early 2000s instead of in 2007 “that the Pinnacle Device results in a high percentage of patients developing metallosis, biologic toxicity and an early and high failure rate due to the release of metal particles in the patient’s surrounding tissue when the cobalt-chromium metal femoral head rotates within the cobalt-chromium metal acetabular liner.”

The DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-01103-K in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.