A new metal-on-metal hip lawsuit has joined the existing litigation over the controversial medical implants. The new hip implant lawsuit echoes many of the complaints seen in other hip implant lawsuits.

The hip implant lawsuit was filed by an individual named Rache Ann Watilo, and was filed against the medical device company Wright Medical Technology. Watilo’s hip implant lawsuit alleges that Wright’s metal-on-metal hip implant was defective and caused her serious medical problems.

According to the text of her metal-on-metal hip lawsuit, Watilo received the hip implant in May of 2008. The procedure used a Wright hip implant to replace her failing hip joint. However, in March of 2010, Watilo began to experience hip pain and infections. This escalated until February of 2013, when the Watilo’s physicians determined that the device had failed. The next month, in March of 2013, Watilo had revision surgery to repair the device.

Metal-on-metal hip joints were released in the 2000s by several different medical companies. While most hip implants used ceramic or polymers on the joint surface, metal-on-metal hip joints have bare metal.

It has been alleged by Watilo’s metal-on-metal hip implant lawsuit, and thousands of similar cases, that these designs are more likely to fail than older styles of hip implant.

One specific concern is that the metal interfacing surfaces can grind against each other. This creates microscopic metal flakes. While intact hip implants are generally non-reactive, when grinded into these tiny flakes the material could be more reactive, forming toxic metal ions. This allegedly promotes complications like pseudotumors and failure of the joint. These concerns are found across different makes and models of metal-on-metal hip joints, leading to mass metal-on-metal hip implant lawsuits and recalls of these products.

The various lawsuits over metal-on-metal hip implants have taken the form of several multidistrict litigations or MDLs. MDLs are a combination of individual lawsuits into a single coordinated legal action. In many ways, MDLs are similar to class action lawsuits. In both class action lawsuits and MDLs, a group of plaintiffs allege that they have suffered similar harm at the hands of the same defendant.

The main difference between MDLs and class action lawsuits is that class action lawsuits start out as group lawsuits, while MDLs start out as individual lawsuits. Drug and medical device lawsuits like metal-on-metal hip implant lawsuits tend to take the form of MDLs instead of hip replacement class action lawsuits because the injuries often vary.

However, they are likely to file lawsuits that have similar facts and depend on similar evidence. Such cases are ideal for inclusion into a single MDL once they are filed. There are currently several different MDLs against different companies that made metal-on-metal hip implants.

The Metal-on-Metal Hip Implant Lawsuit is Rachel Ann Watilo v. Wright Medical Technology Inc., Case No. 6:14-cv-01182-AA, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. It could be included in the MDL In re: Wright Medical Technology Inc., Conserve Hip Implant Product Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2329, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.