Sarah Markley  |  February 23, 2018

Category: Legal News

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Arthritis at hip joint . inflamed of hip joint, Avascular necrosis.Many individuals discover that as they age, their joints present problems. They often have to undergo joint replacement surgery in order to relieve pain or to do basic things such as walk or exercise. Hip replacements specifically can help restore motion to those who have lost mobility.

However, some joint replacement systems, like the Stryker LFIT system, are connected with a series of complications that may result in early device failure or revision surgery. These complications prompted the Stryker femoral head recall.

Stryker’s femoral head recall has affected over 42,000 units around the world, prompting lawsuits and legal actions taken by a multitude of affected patients.

The medical device company, Stryker, issued a voluntary LFIT Anatomic femoral head recall on Aug. 29, 2016. This recall was terminated on May 2, 2017, but it was too late for many patients who had already been implanted with Stryker’s defective device.

Hip Replacement Basics

A hip replacement system is made up of three basic parts: a stem implanted into the femur (the bone in the thigh), a ball that attaches to the top of femur (called the femoral head) and the cup that the ball rests in (which is attached to the pelvic bone).

As a person moves their joint or walks, this “ball” moves in the “socket” that is attached to the pelvis.

The reason for the Stryker femoral head recall has to do with something known as a taper lock failure. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA), the company received “several complaints describing incidence of harm secondary to taper lock failure for specific lots of numerous catalog numbers of LFIT Anatomic CoCr V40 Femoral Heads.”

What is a Taper Lock Failure?

The femoral head recall by Stryker cites taper lock failure. At the junction of the femoral stem (the part that is implanted into the femur) and the femoral ball, there is a “neck” or small metal rod. This extends from the femoral stem and attaches the ball to the stem.

This junction is supposed to be connected securely and permanently by means of a taper lock system. However, it has been reported that that juncture often begins to corrode; this can cause many different problems.

Corrosion of the neck of the femoral head, over time, can cause loosening. This causes the whole device to become compromised. At the site of the loosening, between the femoral head and the femoral ball, there might be metal-on-metal friction. This can release harmful metals into the body that would not be released otherwise.

Aside from loosening, other problems that can occur when the taper lock fails or breaks down include disassociation of the femoral head from the hip stem, fractures, metal debris causing tissue death and blood poisoning (metallosis), noise at joint and loss of bone fixation strength. Additional complications may include loss of mobility, pain requiring revision surgery, inflammatory response, dislocation, adverse local tissue reaction and pain.

If you have undergone a hip replacement surgery and were implanted with a Stryker hip, your device may be subject to the Stryker femoral head recall. If this is the case, contacting an attorney may help you determine if legal action is right for you.

Do YOU have a legal claim? Fill out the form on this page now for a free, immediate, and confidential case evaluation. The hip implant attorneys who work with Top Class Actions will contact you if you qualify to let you know if an individual lawsuit or class action lawsuit is best for you. [In general, metal hip implant lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.] Hurry — statutes of limitations may apply.

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