Wright Medical Technology will pay $4.5 million over a metal hip lawsuit, according to a jury verdict in the first of thousands of lawsuits to go to trial over alleged defects in the Profemur R hip implant.

After a two-week trial, which started May 28, the jury in Los Angeles County Superior Court found Wright Medical Technology liable for a manufacturing defect in the Profemur R metal-on-metal hip device implanted in plaintiff Alan W. The ruling was made on June 12.

The jury’s award excluded medical costs but included $500,000 for loss of consortium for the plaintiff’s wife.

Alan received the Profemur R metal-on-metal hip implant in 2007 as a replacement for an existing hip implant device. Subsequently, the plaintiff had “14 major hip surgeries after the initial break due to subsequent dislocations and infection, and his current hip implant will have to be replaced again in the near future.”

Alan also “has severe scarring from the multiple operations and is now almost entirely confined to his home.”

This particular hip replacement system has a modular neck component, which Wright Medical describes an “evolutionary design.” The modular neck component is supposed to allow for the balancing of soft tissue and ease restoration of the hip joint.

Additionally, most of the metal-on-metal hip implant lawsuits filed against Wright are coordinated for pretrial proceedings in either the Los Angeles County Superior Court or the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The metal hip implant lawsuits primarily involve Wright’s Conserve hip implant.

Wright Hip Implant Complications

Metal-on-metal hip devices were originally thought to be a more durable alternative to ceramic or plastic models, but some studies have shown that they may deteriorate faster, expose patients to high levels of metals such as cobalt and chromium, and fail at a higher rate than older implants.

In fact, approximately one in 12 recipients of metal-on-metal devices may require corrective surgery within five years of implantation.

Wright Hip Implants Lawsuits

Metal-on-metal moving parts in hip implants allegedly grind against each other as the hip moves, releasing shards of metal into patients’ bodies. These metal shards injure and irritate the surrounding tissue and leach toxic chemicals into the body, inflaming and corroding soft tissue and bone and causing numerous adverse effects including tumors and other illnesses.

Both the Conserve and Profemur Z lines of hip replacement devices have been the subjects of various lawsuits, but unlike other problematic models of hip replacement devices, they have not been recalled.

Patients who received Wright hip implants experienced severe pain, inflammation and other severe symptoms. Many were forced to undergo expensive and painful hip revision surgery to prematurely replace the hip implant and are now taking action through Wright hip implant Lawsuits.

Litigation across the country against Wright Medical Technology has been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL). Like a class action lawsuit, one court will hear the hip implant lawsuits together but unlike a class action, each plaintiff bringing a hip implant lawsuit can obtain compensation relative to their individual injuries.