http://www.depuyhipreplacementlawsuit.com/ - Based on data collected as of October 2010, there were already about 3,500 DePuy hip replacement lawsuits that Johnson & Johnson faces.

1. As Published on the DePuy Hip Replacement Website

2. There are around 93,000 recipients of DePuy’s ASR
XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing
System worldwide when they were pulled back
from the market in August 2010 following the
release of data showing defectiveness in one out
of eight patients to whom they were implanted.
Yet there is good news for the future of metal-on-
metal implants.

3. 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
graphite compound may enhance the safetyand
effectiveness of future hip implant products. The
British Hip Society proposes for an informal all-metal
hip replacement ban.

4. “Graphite has been used as a lubricant for over a
century. It is a classic lubricant, and it appears to
form naturally,” according to Laurence Marks, one
of the researchers and also a professor at
Northwestern University, teaching materials science
and engineering.

5. Marks further speculates that subsequent
manufacturers of metal-on-metal hip implants
could improve their devices to encourage
graphite formation to prevent metal poisoning
and corrosion. The benefits of graphite
compound was discovered in a recent study
funded by the National Institutes of Health that
was published in the medical journal, Science.

6. “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,” says
Marks.

7. 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:

8. • Additional hip replacement or revision surgery
• Loosening of hip device
• Detachment of the hip device from the bone
• Unexplained hip pain
• Hip dislocation
• Swelling
• Complete hip failure
• Metallosis (metal toxicity or blood poisoning)

9. • Pseudotumors
• Tissue damages
• Genotoxicity (genetic damage)
• Bone fractures
• Bone loss
• Inflammatory reactions
• Presence of chromium and cobalt in the blood
that may lead to cancer

10. “Most major medical centers have seen issues with
this device,” Dr. Joshua J. Jacobs, the chairman of
orthopedic surgery at Rush University Medical Center
in Chicago, says in a newspaper interview. “This does
not come as a surprise.”

11. Based on data collected as of October 2010, there
were already about 3,500 DePuy hip replacement
lawsuits that Johnson & Johnson faces. They were
among those affected by the failures and defects (e.g.
fractures, displacements, loosening) of DePuy
devices.