Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog
I am providing this Stryker Hip Failure update for victimized patients injured by the allegedly defective Stryker Rejuvenate, ABG II and most recently the Stryker LFIT V40 line of metal on metal hips.
Stryker Hip Failure. Stryker under fire over its LFIT line of metal hip devices causing metal poisoning and premature failure according to lawsuits
Howmedica Osteonics and its subsidiary Stryker are one of the world’s largest metal on metal hip manufacturers, according to research with about 20% of the global market share.
Stryker LFIT V40 Hip Failure
Stryker is exposed to thousands of personal injury premature hip failure, metallosis and product liability claims over its line of metal hips over the past five years.
The latest wave of claims against Stryker Corporation involves the Stryker LFIT Anatomic CoCr (cobalt and chromium) V40 Femoral Head which is commonly used with the Stryker Accolade Hip replacement system as well as other models of hip replacement products.
What is Stryker LFIT V40?
According to Stryker, the “LFIT Anatomic CoCr Femoral Heads are compatible with Accolade TMZF, Secur-Fit Max, Citation TMZF, Hipstar, and most commercially available Stryker femoral hip stems.”
During hip replacement surgery, the metal femoral head is hammered onto a metal taper, in this case a V40 taper, where it is supposed to lock in place. The failure of that taper lock causes excessive movement between the femoral head and the stem and ultimately leads to product failure.
Stryker Hip Failure 2016 Recall letter
On August 29, 2016, Stryker sent an “Urgent Medical Device Recall Notification” letter to surgeons that implanted or reported problems with certain Stryker LFIT V40 femoral heads manufactured prior to 2011. The letter explained that Stryker had received a higher than expected number of complaints involving taper lock failure of the recalled femoral heads.
In the letter, Stryker explained the reported problems associated with the device including:
- Dislocation of the femoral head from the hip stem
- Hip stem fractures
- Excessive metallic corrosion leading to cobalt and/ or chromium poisoning
- Insufficient range of motion
- Loss of implant/bone fixation strength
- Excessive wear debris
- Noise
Simultaneously, the Canadian public health agency issued a recall over the Stryker LFIT V40 and the Australian Government Department of Health published a Hazard Alert regarding the same devices.
According to the plaintiffs, Stryker knew for years that the LFIT V 40 femoral heads were defective and dangerous but instead chose to downplay the risk of using such device and failed to properly warn the hundreds of doctors implanting these devices.
Multidistrict Litigation for Stryker LFIT V40
Multidistrict Litigation or MDL, is common in medical device and pharmaceutical lawsuits where there are thousands of injured patients around the country. In a MDL, the lawsuit claims are funneled into one federal court to ensure that all the plaintiffs and defendants, are under one roof.
This consolidation and centralization allows for the efficient use of the court system and trials are held picked from a pool of cases, known as bellwether trials.
An injured Massachusetts hip replacement patient has requested that the LFIT V40 Anatomic Femoral Head lawsuits be centralized in Massachusetts.
Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II Hip Implant lawsuits
This is not the first ride at the metal hip failure rodeo for Stryker. Stryker agreed to settle over 3,000 injury and defective product lawsuits in 2014, involving the Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II Hip Implant models. These Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II Hip Implants were recalled in 2012.