Houston hip implant injury attorneys: Stryker recently recalled certain modular metal-on-metal neck and stem hip implant medical devices due to an unreasonably high rate of failure and injury. The modular metal-on-metal design resulted in deterioration like corrosion, fretting and flaking of the metal parts. The miniscule metal flakes from the corrosion and fretting can get into patient tissues and cause bone loss, toxicity, tissue damage, and death.
But our Houston hip implant injury attorneys point out that Stryker isn’t the only maker of such a dangerous and effective modular metal-on-metal hip implant medical device. The Wright Profemur metal-on-metal hip implant also employs the modular, adjustable neck and stem design. Wright Medical designed the neck and stem implant to be less invasive and also more adjustable so that, theoretically at least, surgeons would have more ability to speed recoveries and equalize leg lengths.
But the very qualities that seem to increase the flexibility of the implant for surgeons also seem to increase the risk of fractures and implant loosening over time. The bendable neck can increase the risks of implant deterioration and failure. The modular metal neck fits inside a metal stem. And the two metal parts can grind together and deteriorate through the fretting and corrosion mentioned previously.
The U.S. FDA has already received almost 17,000 reports of adverse health events stemming from metal-on-metal hip implants that include the Wright Profemur implant. Our Houston hip implant injury attorneys note that 14,000 of these reports involved revisions of loosened or failed medical devices, and almost 9,000 described pain from the hip implants.
In addition to severe pain from the modular metal-on-metal hip implants, reported problems from the Wright Profemur medical devices include: premature loosening of the devices, component fractures and breakage, physical impairment, and overall implant failure.
Like so many dangerous and defective medical devices, the Wright Profemur hip implant was approved through the expedited 501(k) FDA approval process. This means that the medical device did not receive clinical trials or testing prior to being launched onto the U.S. market and implanted in living patients like you. Just last month, Wright Medical disclosed that the U.S. Attorney’s office had issued subpoenas for documents relating to the Wright Profemur medical device.
Patients who have suffered pain and other adverse health events from the Wright Profemur modular metal-on-metal hip implants could be eligible to file civil lawsuits to claim just financial compensation for their needless injury from the defective medical devices. The titanium modular neck and stem design on the Profemur device has been linked to high risks of fracture, fatigue, and failure rates. And injured patients claim that Wright Medical failed to warn both physicians and patients of these risks. Contact the concerned and experienced Houston hip implant injury attorneys at Denena & Points for your free legal consultation to discuss options and potentials for full financial recovery.