A plaintiff, Judith B., has filed a lawsuit against Deputy Orthopaedics, Inc., in Texas federal court alleging that she suffered serious adverse side effects and complications as a result of the implanted metal-on-metal hip medical device.

According to this lawsuit in the DePuy Pinnacle MDL, Judith underwent a “right-sided total hip arthroplasty on July 11, 2016.” She asserts that the implant and surgery were done at the Kaiser Medical Center in Modesto, Calif. and that she was implanted with the DePuy Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implant device.

However, due to alleged complications, “significant discomfort, pain, stiffness, and loss of motion,” and the serious risk of suffering from metal toxicity due to the elevated levels of chromium and cobalt metal ions, she required revision surgery.

She alleges, moreover, that she also suffered damages to her hip ranging from “implant loosening, metallosis, necrosis, soft tissue damage, muscle damage, and other injuries,” as well.

According to the DePuy Pinnacle MDL, the lawsuit alleges that a patient undergoing revision surgery also suffers a increased risk of hip dislocation than what could have occurred with an original hip replacement surgery.

According to complaints in the DePuy Pinnacle MDL, a study conducted by Charlotte Phillips and her colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that “14.4% of patients who underwent a revision surgery suffered from dislocation compared with 3.9% of patients who underwent an original hip replacement surgery.”

Judith’s claim has been filed as part of a large multidistrict litigation, or MDL, centered on allegations that DePuy Orthopaedics and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson marketed and sold a faulty and defective metal-on-metal medical hip device.

According to the DePuy Pinnacle MDL complaints, the defendants particularly marketed the medical device as an implant that can greatly reduce pain, meet the demands of active patients, and recreate “the natural ball-and-socket joint of your hip, increasing stability and range of motion.”

However, the Pinnacle device, which is made of a metal femoral stem and a metal femoral head, may create serious adverse side effects and complications due to its metal-on-metal design.

The articulating surfaces, made of cobalt-chromium metal may cause adverse side effects and complications including metallosis, which is the poisoning that happens within the body’s soft tissue surrounding the hip and the body’s bloodstream when metal debris is shed.

According to the DePuy Pinnacle MDL, moreover, the Pinnacle device was approved through the 510(k) process by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which keeps it from having to undergo traditional premarket approval on the basis that other similar product that is substantially equivalent to another device already on the market.

The DePuy Pinnacle MDL alleges that had the defendants conducted adequate and sufficient clinical trials before its market release in the early 2000’s, they would have discovered that the Pinnacle system “results in a high percentage of patients developing metallosis, biologic toxicity and loosening of their implant.”

The DePuy Pinnacle MDL Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-02101-K, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. The Pinnacle MDL is In re:  DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., Pinnacle Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, MDL 3:11-MD-2244-K in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.