A nationwide metal hip replacement class action lawsuit has been brought against Stryker Corp. for allegedly manufacturing, marketing, and selling faulty and dangerous modular hip replacements. More than 2,000 product liability lawsuits have been filed concerning the Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II modular hip implants’ tendency to fret, corrode, and fail within a few years of implantation.

The individual Stryker hip lawsuits have been consolidated into multidistrict litigation (MDL) that are moving toward bellwether trials in the Summer of 2015. Early trial dates for the first two bellwether Stryker hip lawsuits have been set for June 15, 2015, and July 13, 2015, to be heard in the Superior Court of Bergen County, New Jersey.  A third bellwether trial is set to be scheduled soon thereafter.

These bellwether trials could indicate that additional Styker hip settlement negotiations may be close at hand.

History of Styker Hip Replacement Complications

The Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II modular hip implants have distinguished themselves in the medical device market for their unique design. While traditional hip implants have a single femoral component to attach to the surrounding tissue and ligature, the Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II feature a modular neck stem with adjustable pieces to allow for variation in femoral component length for each patient.

Typically, hip implants are meant to last 15 to 20 years after implantation; however, Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II modular hip implants began to corrode to and fail after only two years of implantation.  Over 20,000 patients have received either model of Stryker hip replacements since 2010.

It has since been discovered that the metal-on-metal hip joints release metal debris into the blood stream and surround hip tissue after rubbing together, causing a host of serious complications in hip replacement patients. Reports of metallosis (metal blood poisoning), pseudotumors, and tissue death led to a Stryker hip recall of both devices in 2012.

Stryker Metal Hip Replacement Lawsuit Bellwether Trials

As previously stated, the Stryker bellwether trials represent a sampling of individuals who have similar complaints against Stryker for alleged hip replacement complications. These bellwether trials are chosen to help parties in the Stryker hip MDL to gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony presented in the litigation against the company. If juries respond favorably to the plaintiffs, Stryker may choose to enter into settlement agreements with other plaintiffs in the Stryker MDL to avoid the expense of going to trial and potentially losing again.

Stryker settlement negotiations have already begun in several cases, including one in January 2014 and four Stryker settlements in December 2013.

Some criteria for individual plaintiff’s inclusion in a potential Stryker hip settlement may be:

• A hip replacement patient with elevated metal levels in their blood;
• A person who suffered from hip replacement complications that required a hip revision surgery to remove and replace the defective hip; and
• An individual that had two Stryker hip replacements that failed and required revision.