A new study from the United Kingdom reveals what we’ve already suspected-namely that patients experiencing hip replacement failures and pain from their hip medical devices are on the rise. Unfortunately, no such data is available to us in the United States because we don’t have a medical registry database from which we can cull such valuable information. However, we can extrapolate from the British study and conclude the situation is no different in the United States. Such a conclusion is strengthened given the FDA’s acknowledgment that they’ve received more complaints about hip failures in the past six months than they did in the combined four year period previous to this year.
While most of the attention has been focused on the metal-on-metal hip devices that are causing problems and are failing at a high rate, there are still cases involving the Zimmer Durom cup. These Zimmer hips were never recalled but Zimmer patients continue to complain about pain and mobility issues with the Durom cup hip implants.