Revision is defined as an act of modification for something to improve. In the case of revision surgery, a previous procedure will be revised due to complications or symptoms that hinder the patient’s ability to perform normal functions. Hip replacement surgeries necessary in hip fractures require revision surgery when the artificial joint has been severely damaged due to several factors including wear and tear.
An Overview on Hip Replacement Surgery?
Hip Replacement is performed to get rid of the damaged hip joints and cartilage and be replaced with prosthetic devices like DePuy Pinnacle Hip Replacement device. The surgery will normally take 2 up to 4 hours and the prognosis usually has good prognosis. The patient stays in the hospital for 3 to 5 days and full recovery will take about 3 to 6 months depending on the response of the patient to the treatment and rehabilitation plan.
When is Revision Surgery Needed?
Surgeons perform hip revision surgery for 2 main reasons: if pain is severe and the disability cannot be managed by other treatment modalities and the extent of damage shown in x-ray tests is serious and operation is needed immediately. This procedure will be needed if these conditions will be experienced:
Infection in the tissues around the artificial joint requires immediate medical attention because it may further spread to other sites and can cause damage to the hip bone. We wouldn’t want a systemic infection to happen and spread throughout the body.
In America, the top cause of fractures are hip injuries. Majority of those who had hip replacement surgery belong to the upper age group and incidentally enough, this age group is also considered to be the population with the greatest risk for fractures.
The hip device is initially tight-fitted into the bone so it will stay in place but overtime, wear and tear will loosen the device and can begin to move into small amounts. This unfortunately causes pain and discomfort as well as disability to the sufferer. Hip devices generally last for an average of 15-20 years but some like those manufactured by DePuy compelled patients to file a DePuy Pinnacle Lawsuit because of premature loosening of the implants just a couple of years after the surgery. This is a very serious situation because replacing the device is much more difficult and usually not as successful as the first operation.
Mail this postIf you’re of a certain age, it’s likely that you or someone you know has needed to have a joint replaced. As American’s life longer, it becomes a much more common procedure that allows us to lead the active, healthy lives that we want to, even as our natural joints wear out, which can cause pain and disability. One of the most common joints that must be replaced is the hip joint.
This means that in many instances, they are beginning to wear before we do! When this occurs, many patients turn to joint replacements, such as hip replacement. This allows for the enjoyment of the active lifestyle we’re used to, with natural movement. If you have had a hip replacement, or know someone who has, keep reading to find out about a Zimmer hip implant recall.
As we get older, our bodies of course don’t work the way that they used to. What used to be an easy task becomes a difficult one, and we feel more pain than we used to. But for some older Americans, this pain becomes debilitating, especially around their hips. This means that normal activities such as walking can be unbearably painful. It is for these people that Zimmer hip implants were targeted. By replacing their old, worn joint, the pain can be lessened considerably, or even ended, and they can get back to their normal, active lives.
Hip replacements have revolutionized the way that many Americans live their daily lives, and has allowed a great number to do so without pain. But because they are a mechanical replacement, they are known to fail, often within ten years. This means that at an even older age, a patient must go through another replacement surgery. The Zimmer hip implant was designed to change that. It was targeted at younger patients as a way to get the benefits of a hip replacement, but with a long lasting implant that would not need to be replaced, so that they could avoid further surgery.
Unfortunately, the claim that the Zimmer hip implant is long lasting have not held true. In fact, at one test clinic, the implants failed in 12 percent of patients within the first two years. This is an astounding failure rate, and much worse than that of conventional replacements. It also means that for a young patient, given this implant with the promise of less likely future surgery, they in fact faced immediate further surgery, with the prospect of even more in the future!
Zimmer holdings has released a recall of their Zimmer Durom cup hip implant. There are Zimmer hip lawsuits pending in multiple states across the US. If you or a loved on has been subject to a Zimmer Durom implant, then you may want to contact a Zimmer Hip Lawyer to see if you have a case.
When contacted, the Zimmer Durom Company denied that their hip implant is prone to failure. However, in their internal testing, seven percent of patients replacement’s failed within the first two years. This is a high failure rate, and was high enough that the company pulled the product in July 2008. If you have had a hip replacement, contact your doctor to ask if it was a Zimmer hip implant, because you may have the right to sue Zimmer Durom.
Mail this postAs American’s life expectancies grow longer, more and more of our body parts are wearing out before we do. One of the first and most common to go are our joints, especially those located at our hips. Because of years of activity, these joints can become worn down as we age, and must be replaced medically. It’s become a very common procedure, and it’s likely that you or an older loved one has had a hip replaced. If so, read on please, because there is important information you need to know about hip replacement that have been recalled as faulty, made by the manufacturer Zimmer Durom.
There could be a large number of reasons that your loved one, or even yourself, needed to receive a hip replacement made by Zimmer Durom. The procedure, which is known as either hip arthroplasty, or hip replacement more commonly, involves removing the original hip joint and replacing it with an artificially manufactured one. This process is done for a number of reasons, including arthritis pain, located in the joint, the normal wear and tear on the joint because of age, and as part of the treatment for a hip fracture.
There have been modern hip replacement surgeries for almost 40 years, leading most people to believe that it is a completely safe procedure, because it is so common place. There can be surprising complications however, like the recall involving Zimmer Durom. A normal hip replacement involves three parts, all designed to work for you like a natural hip joint. The first is a metal piece which mimics the femur bone. Attached to that is a piece that works as the natural hip joint would. Keeping it all in place are either metal screws or bone cement.
If you have had hip replacement surgery, than you know that one of the biggest problems is the need for revision, or further surgery to solve problems with the prosthesis. This can cause serious damage to a patient’s ability to walk, and is painful, time consuming, and expensive. The Zimmer Durom device was marketed exactly for its ability to avoid this problem, and to last longer than most prosthetics, so that younger patients could wear the device for the rest of their lives. However, in one study, 12 percent of patients needed revision in under two years, causing a medical community outcry.
Zimmer holdings has released a recall of their Zimmer Durom cup hip implant. There are Zimmer hip lawsuits pending in multiple states across the US. If you or a loved on has been subject to a Zimmer Durom implant, then you may want to contact a Zimmer Hip Lawyer to see if you have a case.
Though Zimmer Durom has maintained that this high failure rate is caused by surgeon error, it pulled the replacement from the market in July 2008 after its own internal study found that 8 percent of the devices needed revision in two years. This has let many doctors and lawyers to believe the issue is with the replacement.
If you or a loved one received a Zimmer Durom hip replacement, something your doctor will know, you may have the right to join a class action law suit, even if your replacement has not yet failed.. Be wary of signing anything by Zimmer Durom, as that may be a release taking away this right.
Mail this postAs Americans start living longer lives, some of our parts aren’t lasting quite as long as our lives. Because of this, many people are having replacements for different parts of their bodies needed surgically. Of course you’ve heard of hip and knee replacements, it’s possible that you’ve had one, or someone that you love has. While this surgery has become very commonplace, especially as active adults are hit by arthritis or overuse, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t without its complications. If you have received a hip replacement, please read on to find out important information about faulty Zimmer Durom hip cups.
If you’re an older American, it’s likely that you or someone that you know has needed a hip replacement. These surgeries, many of which involved the Zimmer Durom hip cup, are often seen as a way for otherwise healthy and active seniors to live longer, healthier lives, doing what they love to do. Normal wear and tear can lead to joint pain severe enough that hip replacement surgery is recommended. Chronic conditions such as arthritis also often lead to hip replacement, as do falls which lead to broken hips which have caused joint damage.
Hip replacement surgery involves the removal of the femur and hip joint. They are then replaced with artificial parts that are designed to allow for normal and healthy movement. Unfortunately, with older technology, these replacements often needed to be replaced themselves, leading to expensive and difficult repeat surgeries. The promise of the Zimmer Durom hip cup was that it would allow younger hip replacement recipients to use one replacement for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, this has not been true.
The Zimmer Durom Hip Cup, marketed as a solution to the wear and tear that can happen to a hip replacement, is actually very prone to needing replacement itself. At one hospital, fully 12 percent of those who received these replacements needed another surgery to replace the Durom hip cup within two years, a staggering amount, especially when the hip replacement is supposed to last for a lifetime. A doctor at the hospital complained to the Zimmer Durom company, and was told the issue was with ’surgeon error.’
Zimmer holdings has released a recall of their Zimmer Durom cup hip implant. There are Zimmer hip lawsuits pending in multiple states across the US. If you or a loved on has been subject to a Zimmer Durom implant, then you may want to contact a Zimmer Hip Lawyer to see if you have a case.
But in fact, this does not seem to be the case at all. When the company did their own evaluation of the Zimmer Durom hip cup, they found that eight percent needed to be replaced within two years. This is not what they promised in their marketing literature, and not the outcome that either patients or doctors wanted or expected. Because this was promised as a solution that avoided surgery, not added more, the faulty nature of the implants is leading to a class action law suit.
If you or a loved one have received a hip replacement, now is the time to ask your doctor if it involved the Zimmer Durom hip cup. If it did, you may have the right to sue, even if your replacement has not yet failed. Ask your doctor today.
Mail this postStockholders, doctors, patients, and attorneys are still debating the handling of the sale of Zimmer Durom Cup hip implants in the United States. Although these devices were used successfully in Europe for three years prior to being approved in the U.S., their track record in America has been less than stellar. Many contend that the company was slow to respond to the problems that were occurring and negligent in informing the public about what was going on. Many feel that a recall should have been issued on the defective cups, but Zimmer has not done so.
Even though Zimmer knew about the problem as early as January, 2008, it wasn’t until July of that same year that they finally suspended American sales of the device. They chose to spend the interim time looking into the allegations instead of eliminating the problem. They were skeptical that the implants could be defective as doctors were saying, because they had been used so successfully in Europe. Since they felt they needed to look elsewhere for the problem, they didn’t want to take the devices off the market until they were sure what the culprit was.
Using information taken from 3,100 implant surgeries, Zimmer put together a database of material so that their researchers could study the problem in detail. After a great deal of study, they determined that there was nothing wrong with the implant technology. What they found was that American doctors hadn’t received adequate training prior to starting to perform the surgeries. The implants had been designed differently from previous types of hip replacement devices, and surgeons needed to be much more precise about the way they implanted them than they’d ever needed to be before.
Since there was no evidence found saying that the implant device itself was to blame for the problems patients were having, no recall was ever issued. This leaves the way clear for them to put the implant back on the market once efficient methods of training are developed for doctors. Zimmer needed to develop a better way of teaching physicians the very precise skills required to do the hip replacement using the Durom Cup successfully.
Part of the problem resulting in the public demand for recall is that no follow-up procedures were put in place by Zimmer in order to track the progress of patients using their implants. Some may argue that it isn’t their job to police the product after it has been implanted, but others feel that if they made it, they should continue to be responsible for its performance.
Physicians clearly blame the device for the problems that are popping up. They point to the fact that a knee replacement device manufactured by Zimmer is still being used in the United States even though Austrian doctors stopped using it just three years after it was introduced because it failed in almost 40% of the cases in which it had been used. It’s easy to understand why doctors are feeling uneasy about using Zimmer products despite their previous reputation.
Zimmer holdings has released a recall of their Zimmer Durom cup hip implant. There are Zimmer hip lawsuits pending in multiple states across the US. If you or a loved on has been subject to a Zimmer Durom implant, then you may want to contact a Zimmer Hip Lawyer to see if you have a case.
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