A New York woman has filed a Stryker LFIT hip implant lawsuit against the makers of her hip implant claiming it was defective and caused severe complications.

Plaintiff Pamela K. of New York says she was implanted with a Stryker LFIT hip implant, specifically the LFIT Anatomic CoCr V40 Femoral Head, on her right side in February 2012. This surgery occurred at the Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., according to this Stryker LFIT hip implant lawsuit.

Pamela claims that because of severe complications she has experienced because of her Styrker LFIT hip implant, she has suffered damages and economic loss. She has not scheduled an explantation surgery yet.

This Stryker LFIT hip implant lawsuit alleges that the device manufacturers are responsible for her injuries. Pamela claims that she “could not have known that the injuries … she suffered were as a result of a defect in the Device(s) at issue until after the date the Device was recalled from the market and [Pamela] came to learn of the recall.”

Additionally, she “could not have known that … she was injured by excessive levels of chromium and cobalt until after the date … she had … her blood drawn and … she was advised of the results of said blood-work and the fact that those blood work abnormalities were attributable to a defect in the Device(s) at issue.”

In this Stryker LFIT hip implant lawsuit, Pamela is bringing forth claims of negligence, negligence per se, defective design, manufacturing defect, failure to warn, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranties, negligent misrepresentation and others.

This Stryker LFIT Hip Implant Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-cv-11157-IT in the United States District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Stryker LFIT Hip Implant Complications

Many patients who receive a Stryker LFIT hip implant, like Pamela, experience complications. Reports of Stryker LFIT hip implant problems have led to a recall of the LFIT Anatomic CoCr V40 femoral heads like Pamela received.

Most commonly, plaintiffs who experience problems with the Stryker LFIT hip implant claim that they suffer from metal toxicity causing pain, broken bones and tissue death. Many patients have to undergo explantation or revision surgery in order to fix the issue. Sometimes it is too late, as bone fractures and metal poisoning has already occurred.

Often, hip implants that utilize metal-on-metal technology come with their own set of problems. For these implants like the Stryker LFIT hip implant, metal can shed from the ball and socket joint and cause ions to be dispersed into the blood and surrounding tissue.

The femoral head recall for the Stryker LFIT hip implant is due to reports of taper lock failure. Other complications reported include a fractured hip stem trunnion, excessive metal debris and metallosis, a disassociation of the femoral head from the hip stem, noise, excessive wear debris, insufficient soft tissue tension, and other major problems.

These Stryker LFIT hip implant complications can lead to loss of mobility, user annoyance, revision surgery, pain, dislocation, inflammation, adverse tissue reaction, joint instability, leg length discrepancy, periprosthetic fracture and implant loosening.