Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog
Metal-on-metal hip replacement products were sold to doctors and patients with promises that these medical devices would be better than the alternative. Manufacturers who released these products said that unlike traditional replacement joints with ceramic parts, the metal-on-metal products would last a long time and be great for young and active people. 
Unfortunately, our Boston defective hip attorneys know that not only did the devices not live up to the claim of being longer lasting, but they are actually more prone to fail than the other types of hip joint replacement systems. This has been confirmed time and again and now yet another study has come to light highlighting the high failure rate of metal-on-metal devices.
Canadian Institute for Health Reveals Problems with Metal-on-Metal Devices
According to CBC News Health, the Canadian Institute for Health recently conducted an in depth study on metal hip replacement products. The study was one of the largest to-date and it compared the outcome of patients who received a metal-on-metal hip replacement product with those who receive other types of replacement joints.
Researchers looked at more than 56,942 hip replacement surgeries that were performed throughout Canada from 2003 through 2011. These included:
- Patients who had received a metal-on-plastic hip replacement (23 percent of patients who had a procedure during this time period)
- Patients who received a metal-on-metal hip replacement (nine percent of patients)
- Patients who received a ceramic-on-ceramic hip replacement product (eight percent of patients)
- Patients who had received a ceramic-on-plastic hip replacement product (five percent of patients)
Of those included in the research, the vast majority of patients who received a metal-on-metal implant were under the age of 55, reflecting the aggressive marketing of the products to younger people getting hips replaced. Most of the metal-on-metal products were also implanted in either 2007 or 2008, as this was the time when the devices were most aggressively marketed and before reports of problems began to surface.
The purpose of the study was to determine the failure rates for each of the different kinds of hip replacement products. Hip replacement systems should last anywhere from ten to fifteen years on average, but since the metal-on-metal devices promised to last longer, they would have a very low failure rate if they lived up to the hype. Unfortunately, however, they clearly did not offer the lasting solution that was promised.
Although it has been just a few years since most of the patients included in the study had their metal-on-metal hip implants put in, many have already had to have the hip joint replaced. In fact, the study revealed that the metal-on-metal products had a 5.9 percent failure rate during the first five years after implantation. This was almost the 2.7 percent failure rate for metal-on-plastic devices.
Having a hip replacement fail is painful, and the surgery to correct the problem can be expensive and can seriously impact a patient’s quality of life. Those patients who had their devices fail didn’t deserve to experience these complications and should take legal action against the medical device manufacturers who released the dangerous products onto the market. With new studies surfacing regularly to reveal the dangers associated with these devices, plaintiffs should have more evidence than ever to build a strong case.
If you or a loved one is experiencing complications in Massachusetts due to metal-on-metal hip implants, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.
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