Mesothelioma Legal Advice

As 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.

The Zimmer Durom Cup Replacement component was used in over 12,000 hip replacement surgeries in the United States from its approval in 2006 through July, 2008. These devices are made of only one piece of material, and their design differs radically from the 3-part implants which were their predecessors. During the period of time from 2003 to 2006, hundreds of implant surgeries were successfully performed in Europe, and American physicians were impressed. Unfortunately, as many American patients started having problems with their implants, doctors lost their faith in them.

Patients started complaining of pain in their hips. Although there is some pain to be expected for the first few months after hip replacement surgery, Durom Cup recipients were starting to complain of problems well after the three-month recovery period. Doctors are now convinced that revision surgery will be needed in almost 5.7% of the patients who received the transplants prior to July, 2008.

After studying the problems from January through July, 2008, Zimmer finally pulled the Durom Cup Replacement device from American markets. After devising a new Internet training program for surgeons, the cup was reintroduced in August, 2008. Only doctors who complete the online training are now able to do the implant surgeries, because the extra training was designed to drastically cut down on the number of revisions that will need to be done. About half of all doctors have refused so far to take the training. They no longer have enough faith in the Zimmer product to go to any extra work in order to use it.

A lot of the unhappy patients who have experienced pain and suffering due to the loosening of their Durom Cup Replacements have filed lawsuits against the company. In addition, a group of stockholders in Indiana filed a class action suit stating that the company was negligent in informing investors about the problems in a timely manner. Even though the company did a lot of testing on the product and found no defects, they announced that they had set aside $47.5 million to pay these claims. They do admit that they were at fault for not offering adequate training to physicians who were using their product.

Patients who are experiencing unexplained hip pain more than three months after having hip replacement surgery, have loosening and slippage in their artificial hip implant, or require hip replacement revision surgery are being encouraged by product liability attorneys to file suit against the company. Per the laws in most states, patients are entitled to compensation for their pain and suffering, medical expenses, and lost wages due to defects in the Zimmer Durom Cup Replacements they received prior to July, 2008.

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.

Since it was reintroduced to the American market in August, 2008, the Durom Cup Replacement device is again being used by about half of the physicians who used to perform the implants. While it is much too soon to know the success rate of these surgeries, the doctors who have performed them are confident that the new training they received will make a big difference. Other doctors are still skeptical and reluctant to take the risk of trying to use the cups again. If you are a candidate for hip replacement surgery, you’ll need to read the information that’s available and make your own decisions. Keep in mind, though, that even with a 5.7% failure rate, Durom Cup surgeries were still successful 94.3% of the time.

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