A plaintiff has filed a Pinnacle hip revision lawsuit in Texas federal court against DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., et al. alleging he suffered severe adverse side effects due to having a Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System implanted in his hip.

The plaintiff is Robert W., and his complaint is one that joins others in an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, centered around allegations of device malfunction. Robert is a resident of Adams County in the State of Ohio.

According to the Pinnacle hip revision lawsuit, the plaintiff was implanted with the Pinnacle device and underwent a right hip arthroplasty on July 12, 2011.

However, right after being implanted with the device he began to experience tenderness in the right hip and increasing pain, the lawsuit explains.

The Pinnacle hip revision lawsuit also maintains that he experienced, “stiffness, decreased range of motion, difficulty rotating the hip joint, difficulty bearing weight, and difficulty ambulating.”

According to the Pinnacle hip revision lawsuit, the plaintiff contends that he continues to experience damage and harm to this day and that in August 2016, he underwent revision surgery to replace the right hip implant.

The Pinnacle hip revision lawsuit maintains that, “had defendants not concealed the known defects, the early failure rate, the known complication and the unreasonable risks associated with the use of the Pinnacle device; plaintiff would not have consented to the Pinnacle device being used in plaintiff’s total hip arthroplasty.”

Pinnacle Hip Revision Lawsuit Facts

Plaintiffs like Robert have filed many lawsuits complaining of the metal-on-metal device that has been associated with adverse side effects such as bone loss, premature loosening, early implant failure, and metal contamination.

Other DePuy hip implants have been the subject of similar defective product allegations. Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of the Pinnacle device, issued a DePuy ASR recall in 2010 because of the increasing number in patient complaints alleging these adverse and serious side effects. However, the medical device continues to be on the market.

In 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the DePuy ASR device, a new hip replacement system. The manufacturer marketed the device as being a stronger and more durable option than other hip replacement devices that were currently on the market.

It was also marketed as being an improved medical device for the implantation in younger patients.

In just a couple of years, however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began to receive complaints of adverse side effects and complications associated with the device. According to those reports, the design of the medical device puts a metal femoral ball directly in contact with a metal acetabular cup.

What can result from that design is metal contamination to the surrounding tissue and within the hip joint. A condition known as metallosis can also occur in which the metal particles or debris, get into the surrounding tissue or within a patient’s bloodstream.

Additionally, DePuy received its approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration through a fast-track 510(k) approval process. This process means that DePuy never had to perform clinical trials on this medical device for approval.

The only thing that they had to do was illustrate that the components of the metal device were similar to hip component products already being sold on the market.

The Pinnacle Hip Revision Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-02047-K, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.