Product Recall

On 26 August 2010 De Puy (a Johnson & Johnson company) issued a worldwide voluntary recall of their ASR Hip Replacements systems following evidence from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales.

The yet to be published data shows relatively high percentage of secondary hip surgeries. At least 12 to 13 percent of patients who received either the Acetabular System or the Hip Resurfacing System have required follow-up surgeries and five-year revisions.  The risk was highest among female patients.

De Puy ASR hip replacements were withdrawn from the Australian market in December 2009 after it had been reported that they had been found to have a high failure rate and to cause high levels of metal ion release into patients who have been fitted with the device. 

De Puy announced in 2009 that the ASR devices would be discontinued due to the advanced technology in other competing hip replacement devices but they insisted there was no need for a worldwide recall. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the UK agency responsible for ensuring that medical device are safe) issued a safety warning in May 2010 following the advice from the National Hip Joint Registry.  More than three months later De Puy issued this worldwide recall.

Gary Walker, specialist solicitor at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors is acting for a number of patients who have required further surgery and suffered pain and disability after hip replacement surgery using the ASR system. 

Mr Walker says “This recall is very worrying for the thousands of patients in the UK who have had hip replacement surgery in the last few years.  Hip replacement surgery is meant to improve a patient’s quality of life and clearly this is not the case for a proportion of patients who have received the ASR device who have then gone on to suffer problems, needed further surgery and ended up in a worse position.”

If you or someone you know has had hip replacement surgery with and it has gone wrong please contact us for free advice.

Have you been affected by a hip replacement failure? If you would like to talk to one of our experts about a possible compensation claim, call 0800 056 4110 or contact us online.

Alternatively, read more about making a metal hip replacement claim.