Patients have been using hip replacement surgery to restore their movement and to eliminate the pain from basic movements.

Hip replacement surgery has been around for at least 40 years, helping millions of patients suffering from painful arthritis, pelvic injury and to improve the overall quality of life for patients suffering from hip pain.

At this time there are approximately 450,000 patients that undergo hip replacement surgery each year, with many of them opting for metal on metal hip replacement models. Initially only plastic and ceramic models were available, but metal on metal hip replacement has been on the rise for the past several years.

Patients have been reportedly asking for the metal on metal hip replacement models, after being marketed as more durable and longer lasting than the ceramic or plastic options.

In addition, these metal hip implants can be customized to the patient’s specific frame and can take harsher movements like running.

However, not long after these metal on metal hip replacement models began reporting various complications such as: metal toxicity from hip replacement, pain after hip replacement, device failure, corrosion, and debilitating pain.

Each of these complications has led many patients to have the need to undergo revision hip replacement surgery to replace the hip implants and to explant the defective device.

The complications patients reported, especially pain after hip replacement and metal toxicity from hip replacement, stem from the all metal composition of the hip replacement implants.

Overview of Metal Hip Replacement Complications

When the ball and socket joint of the metal hip implant interact, metal ions are shed directly into the bloodstream resulting in blood metal poisoning leading to other serious complications.

It is currently estimated that between 100,000 and one million particles of debris are shed from metal on metal hip replacement models. This leads to a number of complications the patient can suffer after hip replacement surgery including:

• Metal toxicity from hip replacement: Also known as metallosis, the metal ions cause the patient’s metal blood levels to rise to dangerous levels. This condition is caused by the metal ions building up in the soft tissue of the body, often around the surgical site.
• Pain after hip replacement: Due to the metal toxicity involved in the hip replacement problems, other injuries that cam come along include infection, severe joint pain, and the device loosening.
• Implant failure: When the device loosens and becomes unusable for the patient, this results in the need for revision hip replacement surgery.
• Osteolysis: Loss of bone in the area around the metal hip implant replacement, called osteolysis, has been named as the cause of hip replacement failures in 75% of the cases.

Despite the severity of these risks, a number of metal hip implant manufacturers had allegedly chosen to omit this information or provide surgical instructions on the products’ labels.

Many patients have filed legal action against the manufacturers for failing to protect them against the alleged design defects of the metal hip implants. Potential claimants should contact a specialized lawyer to determine if they have a lawsuit.