A Pennsylvania man has filed a DePuy Pinnacle hip complications lawsuit against the manufacturer of his hip replacement system.

In March 2011, plaintiff John I. was implanted with a DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement device in a total right hip arthroplasty procedure. This DePuy Pinnacle device had a metal acetabular cup liner.

The DePuy Pinnacle device is often fitted with an acetabular cup liner that is made of metal. If this is the case, the metal of the femoral head (the part that fits inside the socket of the acetabular cup) comes into contact with the metal liner of the acetabular cup. This is called a metal-on-metal hip replacement system.

With a metal-on-metal hip replacement system like John’s, there is a risk of DePuy Pinnacle hip complications occurring.

Some who have metal-on-metal hip replacement devices report severe DePuy Pinnacle hip complications and severe side effects. These may include degenerative heart disease, cardiomyopathy, or non-cancerous tumors surrounding the hip implant site. These tumors can cause pain, swelling, inflammation and severe discomfort.

Additionally, a patient’s risk of injury is allegedly heightened because of metal-on-metal hip replacement systems and the need for hip revision surgery; premature failure issues also rise with these types of devices.

Because the metal components of the DePuy Pinnacle systems rub together, metal shards and particles may be released into surrounding tissue and into the blood stream. This can lead to a condition known as metallosis, or a metal poisoning of tissue and blood.

John claims that he experienced pain and discomfort as a result of his DePuy Pinnacle hip implant. Because of these DePuy Pinnacle hip complications, John says, he was forced to undergo revision surgery on that same hip in January 2016.

His revision surgery was less than five years after the original implant surgery. John says joint replacements are expected to last about 10 years, John’s hip replacement device lasted less than half of that.

John believes that all of his injuries and DePuy Pinnacle hip complications “were caused by the defective design, warnings, construction and unreasonable dangerous character of the Pinnacle Device that was implanted in him.”

He also asserts that had the manufacturer not concealed the defects and the early failure rate of the device, he would never have consented to have a DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement with a metal acetabular liner implanted.

This DePuy Pinnacle hip complications lawsuit alleges that the manufacturing company had a duty to exercise reasonable care in many areas including “designing, researching, manufacturing, marketing, supplying, promoting, sale, testing, quality assurance, quality control, and/or distribution” of the device.

According to his lawsuit, DePuy failed to conduct adequate testing of their medical device and because of this and other grievances, John has listed negligence as his first cause of action.

He has also listed strict products liability regarding manufacturing defect, design defect and inadequate warning as causes of action, and negligent misrepresentation, breach of express warranty and breach of implied warranty are all listed as claims against DePuy.

This DePuy Pinnacle Hip Complications Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-03289-K in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.