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Revision Surgeries for Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants Expected to Rise
December 29, 2011
A new generation of metal-on-metal hip implants, once touted for its innovation in using an all-metal design, has suffered from high failure rates and has been the subject of many recalls and lawsuits in the past few years. The New York Times reports that, in the coming decade, the number of revision surgeries needed for these metal-on-metal hip implants will surge, leaving device manufacturers, insurance companies and patients to pay billions of dollars in hospital bills.
The New York Times notes that "the episode involves a class of products, not a single device or just one company." Zimmer hip implants, DePuy Pinnacle hip implants, and DePuy ASR hip implants have failure rates as high as 49% within six years of implantation.
Until recently, almost one third of hip replacements performed each year in the U.S. used metal-on-metal devices, and an estimated 500,000 U.S. patients have received metal-on-metal hip devices. Dr. Art Sedrakyan, a researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, used data collected in other countries to predict that that "there will be tens of thousands of revision surgeries in the next decade."