Zimmer Hip Implant Failure Leads to More and More Lawsuits

Approximately 12,000 individuals had the Zimmer Durom Cup Zimmer hip implant failure between 2006 and 2008. While Zimmer’s own estimates in 2008 suggested that some doctors experienced failure rates as high as 5.7%, some claims have suggested that the between 20% and 30% of people may experience problems with a Zimmer Durom Cup hip.Zimmer press releases indicated that many U.S. surgeons had had success implanting the cup, but a subset of patients had experienced "elevated revision rates" since the product’s launch, contrasting with “excellent” clinical outcomes reported by surgeons in Europe.  The device is more often used in hip resurfacing procedures in Europe.

Zimmer Inc., recognizing the potential legal risk regarding the controversial hip, has set aside more than $40 million to cover the exposure resulting in the defective medical device.The class representative plaintiff in a class action Zimmer Hip Lawsuit against Zimmer,is Susan Wilkinson, who began experiencing pain and problems from her Zimmer hip implant only three months after she received it in April 2008. She subsequently had to undergo Zimmer hip revision surgery in 2009 to have the Durom Cup removed.In the United States, a temporary Zimmer Durom Cup recall was issued in July 2008,
only two years after it was introduced. The hip implant was returned to the market a few months later with revised warnings and instructions to ensure that doctors were properly trained on the surgical techniques needed to implant the artificial hip correctly.

According to The New York Times, before they became the subject of safety concerns, metal-on-metal hip implants accounted for nearly one-third of the estimated 250,000 replacements performed each year. According to one estimate, some 500,000 patients have received an all-metal replacement hip.The implant was designed to avoid many problems associated with traditional hip replacements, such as instability, limited range of motion and wear of the bearing. However, after a number of reports emerged involving failure of the Zimmer hip replacement within a few years of surgery, doctors began to take note of a higher-than-expected number of cases involving loosening components that required revision surgery.