Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

According to a new medical study and analysis, irrespective of the implant material, all types of hip replacement devices appear to work the same. The researchers said, the newer, metal-on-metal implants seem to be no more effective than older implants and may sometimes even be more problematic.

“Metal-on-metal and ceramic-on-ceramic hip implants might not be associated with any advantage, compared with traditional bearings such as metal-on-polyethylene or ceramic-on-polyethylene,” said lead researcher Dr. Art Sedrakyan, director of the Patient-Centered Comparative Effectiveness Program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Sedrakyan said there is some medical evidence from three large national registries that higher rates of replacement surgery are associated with metal-on-metal implants, compared with metal-on-polyethylene implants. Even for newer implants such as metal-on-metal or ceramic-on-ceramic bearings, their advantage over traditional implants is not clear, Sedrakyan added.

U.S. District Judge James Beaty has rejected an attempt by Novartis to overturn the verdict in a Zometa jaw decay lawsuit. The trial unearthed evidence that suggests the drug maker’s employees intentionally covered up medical evidence of the bone drug’s side effects.

Novartis was trying to obtain a new trial in a defective drug product liability lawsuit brought by the family of Rita Fussman. The plaintiffs alleged in their lawsuit that the company failed to adequately warn consumers that side effects of Zometa could cause a condition known as osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), where the jaw bone decays and dies.

Last year, a North Carolina jury awarded Fussman’s estate $13 million in compensatory and punitive damages, finding that the company intentionally withheld vital safety information from consumers.

It has now been eighteen months (August 2010) since the DePuy Acetabular Hip Replacement System (ASR Hip) was recalled. Approximately 37,000 DePuy Acetabular Hip Replacement Systems were implanted in the United States.There are many folks who had hip replacement surgery with these one of these devices but remain unaware of the recall or whether or not their hip is defective. It is important for all those who may have been affected—and their family members—to understand the DePuy hip recall and its potential affect on their life.

The DePuy hip recall involves 29 models of the ASR 100 and 300 Acetabular Implants in cup sizes ranging from 44mm to 70 mm.

The DePuy ASR is a metal-on-metal hip replacement system developed in 2005. Physicians have been warning about problems with metal-on-metal hip implants, which can release metal particles into the body, known as metallosis. The metal particles can damage soft tissue, cause inflammatory reactions and lead to bone loss.

A panel of federal judges is scheduled to meet in Savannah, Georgia to hear oral arguments over whether all federal Actos bladder cancer lawsuits should be consolidated under one judge for pretrial proceedings as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

All of complaints allege that the plaintiffs developed bladder cancer from Actos. The lawsuits allege that Takeda Pharmaceuticals failed to adequately research their type 2 diabetes drug or warn about the potential bladder cancer side effects of Actos.

The first Actos bladder cancer lawsuit was filed on July 29, 2011, but recently the number of cases has increased over the past four months.

Folks who are regular readers of my blog, have seen the articles I have written about regarding DePuy ASR Metal on Metal hips. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to highlight this tragedy, we still get inquiries from potential clients who are unaware and uninformed about the dangers of metallosis.

We should be shocked at the intolerable and unacceptable suffering caused to thousands of patients fitted with faulty DePuy hip implants and we should demand urgent action from DePuy.

Many of the 96,000 Americans who had received the DePuy metal-on-metal hip replacements, unfortunately need one or more revision surgeries and they also report serious and systemic health problems extending beyond the initial complications caused by the device.

Effective today, the diabetes drug Avandia will only be available through certified mail-order pharmacies. These new restrictions are designed to limit the number of people exposed to potential heart side effects of Avandia.

The FDA allowed Avandia to remain on the market last year, subject to a new risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS). This special program limits sales of the medication to mail order and requires educational programs before it can be prescribed.

Today, is the last day Avandia will be available on retail pharmacy shelves. To continue receiving the medication after this week, healthcare providers and patients must enroll in the Avandia-Rosiglitazone Medicines Access Program.

Not a day goes by, before more bad news regarding the DePuy ASR and Pinnacle Hip Replacement and Recall issue percolates to the surface. As folks who have been following this story, the DePuy saga continues unabated. This week, our firm filed 3 DePuy ASR lawsuits, in the federal court MDL in Ohio. This is the federal court where the federal filed cases have been consolidated, for pretrial workup. And we are evaluating many more cases of DePuy ASR failures and metallosis.

On a more interesting note, this month Johnson & Johnson’s Third Quarter Earnings Report was published. The quarterly earnings report outlines the various legal proceedings the Company is currently defending.

The report states that “[m]ultiple products of the Company’s subsidiaries are subject to product liability claims and lawsuits in which claimants seek substantial compensatory and, where available, punitive damages.” This material appears on page 18 of the 10K Report.

Our DePuy ASR Recall and Metallosis team, has been aggressively notifying the general public about the problems and risks associated with the Metal on Metal hips. As explained in the 30 plus articles that I have written, this is a huge problem and that we may be experiencing the tip of the litigation iceberg.

We can report with confidence that the federal ASR hip replacement lawsuits are increasing on a daily basis, as the knowledge of premature failure and the risks of metallosis, are being brought to the attention of the folks who underwent hip relacement with this type of hip model.

We get electronic notification each time a new DePuy ASR lawsuit is filed in the federal court overseeing this litigation. And our email box has been filling up with these notifications. There is an average of 20 new cases filed daily in the federal multidistrict litigation, In re: DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation (“MDL No. 2197”).

Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm is writing this open letter to the FDA. We are requesting the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to complete its ongoing safety review of Yaz, Yasmin and other birth control pills containing the synthetic progestin, drospirenone, as soon as possible.

Watch a tv video interview I did regarding one of my seriously injured Yaz client.

Recently, a FDA-funded study confirmed that women who use such birth control pills have an increased risk of blood clots (known as venous thrombosis) when compared to women using other hormonal contraceptives made with an older progestin called levonorgestrel.