Why are Stryker Metal Hips failing?

Stryker Orthopedics and its parent company Howmedica Osteonics, is in the cross hairs over another round of product liability litigation over their allegedly defective metal hip implants, involving their Stryker LFit V40 femoral component.

This Stryker metal femoral head component was removed from the market last year because of an increased risk of premature failure, metal corrosion and cobalt, chromium metal blood poisoning, known as metallosis.

Stryker LFit V40 Hip Recall

A Stryker LFit V40 recall was first announced as part of a hazard alert issued by Australia’s regulators warning that certain large-diameter metal femoral heads manufactured before 2011 may experience taper lock failures, which can result in pain, inflammation, adverse local tissue reactions, spontaneous dislocation and the need for urgent revision surgery.

Although the FDA regulators have not issued a nationwide recall for the Stryker LFIT femoral heads, they have produced general information for folks injured by metal hips.

Medical Report “Extensive Corrosion”

An investigative report in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery from August 2016, described five cases of catastrophic failure with Stryker Accolade and LFit V40 head combinations.

The article found that there was extensive corrosion in the V40 femoral head and Accolade stem that caused the stem to fracture at the stem/head juncture.

 

What is the LFit V40?

Stryker Orthopedics makes the LFit Anatomic CoCr (cobalt and chromium) V40 femoral head. It is an interchangeable “ball” component for total hip replacements that can be attached to a variety of hip stems, including the Accolade TMZF, Accolade 2, Meridian, and Citation models.

Stryker Hip Failure ABG II and Rejuvenate lawsuit update

Stryker Orthopedics, first gained notoriety in 2012, after reports found that two of its blockbuster line of metal on metal hips were failing prematurely and causing metal poisoning. The affected models were the ABG II and Rejuvenate line of Stryker metal hips.

In December, Stryker Orthopedics announced that they will compensate more injured plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation that resulted in a $1 billion settlement in 2014.

The original settlement in 2014,  included those plaintiffs who had revision surgeries on failed implants completed by November 3, 2014. Anyone having undergone a surgical revision after that date was left out holding the bag of defective metal hips.

Stryker LFIT V40 Femoral Head Failure could involve thousands of claims

According to experts, the litigation over the LFIT femoral heads could include thousands of similar injury claims, it is estimated that more than 100,000 LFIT V40 components may have been implanted in patients.

Alaska Stryker LFIT V40 Lawsuit

Recently, Patton Witt, from Alaska filed a defective product liability claim against Howmedica Osteonics and Stryker.

According to Witt, he was implanted with an LFIT V40 and an Accolade TMZF femoral stem in March 2008. The implant developed “extensive corrosion” and the taper-lock wore out, which required revision surgery. He suffered from elevated levels of cobalt in his bloodstream (metallosis) and a large pseudo-tumor or soft-tissue mass in his hip.

Stryker “No warning letters to patients impacted by the recall”

According to the Stryker hip lawsuits, the company did not ask for the affected femoral heads to be returned and did not tell doctors to notify their affected patients of the potential defect in the implanted hip.

There is no recall information on the company’s website regarding the Lfit femoral head that I could find.

If you think you may have a Stryker V40 Head or a Stryker Accolade TMZF stem and are experiencing pain potentially caused by metal corrosion or have suffered a spontaneous dissociation necessitating full revision and emergency care, please call us.