Defective Hip Device Contains Cobalt, Chromium Causing Metallosis

The August 2010 DePuy hip replacement recall for some 93,000 defective implants worldwide might have been bad news after data confirmed that the device design has had an unreasonably high rate of failure. Yet there is good news for the future of metal-on-metal implants. Researchers from US and Germany have discovered a stratum of graphitic carbon on the head part of all-metal hip implants, new research presents. The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) released a DePuy and Stryker hip replacement warning on information of high failure rates, in April 2012. Problems with the design of DePuy metal-on-metal hip devices may had led to the rubbing of metal components against each other and casting microscopic metal bits into the body. The following are the symptoms of cobalt poisoning are: Gastrointestinal problems Haemorrhages Optic nerve / vision problems Deafness Neuropathy Kidney failure Thyroid problems Cardiomyopathy

Other problems resulting from faulty DePuy hip replacement surgery are: Hip dislocation and unexplained hip pain Swelling

Complete hip failure Pseudotumors Tissue damages Additional hip replacement or revision surgery Loosening of hip device Detachment of the hip device from the bone Genotoxicity (genetic damage) Bone fractures Bone loss Inflammatory reactions Presence of chromium and cobalt in the blood that may lead to cancer

Most major medical centers have seen issues with this device, based on the newspaper interview with the chairman of orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Dr. Joshua J. Jacobs. This does not come as a surprise. Graphite has been used as a lubricant for over a century. It is a classic lubricant, and it appears to form naturally, says one of the researchers, Laurence Marks, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University. Additionally, metal-on-metal hip replacement manufacturers could develop their product encouraging graphite formation to avoid the corrosion and metal poisoning, he suggests. The use of graphite was based on a recent study funded by the National Institutes of Health that was published in the medical journal, Science. Now that we have a handle on how they are working and why they were working well, we can start to design them to make them better, adds Marks. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have taken notice of about 400 negative feedbacks from DePuy clients between 2008 and the time of its recall announcement. Many of these clients need a second hip replacement surgery. Presently, numerous clients have pursued legal complaints against DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. and its mother company, Johnson & Johnson.These lawsuits claim that the company was deferring the implementation of DePuy hip recall although it is aware of the problems of the devices. DePuy needs to disseminate more information about defective hip replacement symptoms so that the patients would be given immediate medical attention.

References: usrecallnews.com/2010/09/depuy-hip-replacement-recalled-asr-artificial-hip-systems.html nytimes.com/2010/08/27/business/27hip.html tga.gov.au/newsroom/btn-dupuy-recall.htm

References: emedicine.medscape.com/article/814960-overview diagnose-me.com/cond/C15891.html melissa-peterson.suite101.com/heavy-metal-toxicity-a102976