DePuy Pinnacle Lawsuits 2,700 and Growing

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) seems unable to keep its hands off some trouble over its metal-on-metal hip implants. Just when one thinks the recalled ASR hip lawsuits are currently being settled, here come DePuy Pinnacle lawsuits piling up at a speed not unlike its recalled predecessor. Last month registered almost 2,700 Pinnacle cases filed in federal court.

Although a multidistrict litigation (MDL) has been set up to consolidate these DePuy lawsuits, the product itself is largely out in the market. First trial for the Pinnacle MDL is set by May 2014. On the market front, approximately 150,000 patients utilize the Pinnacle, heralded as the successor of the DePuy ASR hip implant.

DePuy Setting Billions of Dollars for Recalled Hip Implants

There were about 96,000 patients affected by the DePuy ASR recall in August of 2010, a recall largely attributed to above-normal implant revision rates of 17 to 19 percent. Thus far, two ASR lawsuits have reached settlement of $200,000 each. At this rate and with 3,000 pending ASR lawsuits, DePuy’s mother company J&J is reportedly setting aside $3 billion for settlements alone. The company is helping patients shoulder the cost of revision.

However, it seems this is not the case for the Pinnacle. Spokesperson for the Pinnacle defends the hip implant vigorously as a totally different product in comparison the recalled ASR hip. On the contrary, the company is not helping Pinnacle patients with revision surgery.

But How Is It Different Really?

Reports from Reuters stipulate that 10 percent or more of all Pinnacle hip implants is going to fail in the next two to three years. With a 10 percent failure rate, this could translate into 15,000 lawsuits over DePuy Pinnacle in the U.S. alone. Worse, the British Orthopaedic Association estimates that the Pinnacle will exhibit a 49 percent failure rate after six years.

Today with the advent of internet, getting a case started over the Pinnacle is but a matter of taking a legal review in trusted online sites like www.rotlaw.com. Also, many plaintiffs have relied in the expertise of experienced personal injury lawyers (e.g. New York-based RLG or Rottenstein Law Group) to move their cases forward.

Remember at the onset, these metal-on-metal (MoM) hip implants were heralded as the sturdier devices designed for the younger, hipper, more active generation. Instead of lasting 15 years as predicted, they have acquired so bad a reputation surgeons are turning away from these MoM devices in general.

As a successor, the Pinnacle seems to be inheriting the same problems associated to the ASR hip: early revision rate, pain, swelling, limited mobility and dislocation. Then its complications also display the same culprit, metallosis or metal poisoning. Metallosis results from metal shavings or debris that gets deposited in the patient destroying bones and tissue and causing cardiovascular, neurological and renal problems.  In fact, one Mayo clinic orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mary O’ Connor aptly observed that we may be seeing but just the “tip of the iceberg” with regards to metal-on-metal failures.