A recent DePuy hip implant lawsuit claims that the Pinnacle hip was defective and caused long term issues.

Plaintiff John K. says he was implanted with the DePuy Pinnacle hip in October 2002 during his total knee replacement surgery of his right hip. Over time, John reportedly developed symptoms of implant failure including severe pain, discomfort and inflammation around the implant.

John claims that these symptoms, which prompted a revision surgery in June 2017, were caused by the release of “toxic cobalt-chromium metal debris” from the implant.

According to DePuy Synthes, the DePuy Pinnacle is a metal on metal hip replacement, meaning that the articulating surfaces of the implant are both made out of metal.

The company’s website touts the hip replacement as utilizing “advanced bearing technologies that allows surgeons the flexibility to choose intraoperatively from among the most advanced technologies available depending on their patients’ individual needs.”

Despite the flexible nature of the device’s design reportedly advertised by DePuy, the implant is allegedly associated with debilitating side effects. John argues that the metal-on-metal design of the Pinnacle hip results in the release of metal debris due to the metal components rubbing on each other.

“Implantation of the Pinnacle [Metal on Metal] Device results in the nearly immediate systemic release of high levels of toxic cobalt-chromium metal wear particles and metal ions into every hip implant patient’s tissue and bloodstream,” the DePuy hip implant lawsuit claims.

According to the lawsuit, “This is because cobalt-chromium metal particles are released by friction from the metal femoral head articulating within the metal liner, in addition to particles and ions being released by corrosion reactions.”

The release of cobalt-chromium debris can reportedly cause debilitating side effects such as “metallosis, pseudotumors, infection, inflammation, and other adverse reactions.” As in in John’s case, these side effects can allegedly lead to total device failure – requiring revision surgery to correct.

The DePuy Pinnacle lawsuit claims that DePuy knew or should have known that their implant was defective but failed to disclose the issue and concealed problems from consumers in order to protect their profits.

John also claims that DePuy failed to sufficiently test their device before releasing it to the public. The implant was reportedly approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through the 510(k) approval process. This process allows devices to be approved by proving them “substantially equivalent” to an older device rather than forcing the device to undergo extensive testing.

John argues that his experience with the DePuy Pinnacle hip replacement was not unique. “Many” recipients of the metal-on-metal hip replacement reportedly experienced adverse symptoms due to metal debris, as evidenced by the thousands of lawsuits regarding the implant.

In December, Bloomberg reported that Johnson & Johnson, which owns DePuy, was willing to pay over $400 million to resolve thousands of DePuy hip implant lawsuit claims brought by consumers like John. This settlement amount would resolve 3,300 out of the 10,000 lawsuits currently pending regarding the Pinnacle hip.

The DePuy Hip Implant Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-03430-K in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.