DePuy Knee Replacement Device Debonding

DePuy Knee Lawsuit News

Senior citizens are suffering from the faulty DePuy Knee Replacement Device coming loose at the point it connects to the lower leg

Saturday, June 30, 2018 - More and more knee replacements are being performed on senior citizens as a fix for the pain they suffer from osteoarthritis, a degeneration of the knee joint cartilage and underlying bone. Osteoarthritis is most common in senior citizens and causes chronic pain and stiffness. Seniors having knee replacement are generally happy with the outcome as their arthritic knee and the pain it is causing are completely removed. Around 5% of seniors, however, report being in even more pain after the DePuy knee replacement surgery from the failure of the cement that holds the device to the lower leg at the tibia. Many complain of being bed-ridden or being unable to walk without a cane or walker. Returning to any type of physical activities such as golf or tennis is out of the question.

In addition to alleviating the pain seniors face from osteoarthritis, knee replacement may be an option for younger individuals that have suffered a sport or work-related injury. Middle-aged people need to get back on their feet and back to work as soon as possible following knee replacement surgery. Becase of their more active lifestyle, more is required from their artificial knee. Very few in fact ever return to the sport or physical activities that caused the knee injury in the first place. One such disgruntled DePuy knee replacement patient has quipped that he would have preferred having had his leg amputated rather than deal with the pain and immobility caused by the failed DePuy artificial knee.

A common problem people affecting all age groups is that, in an unacceptably high number of cases, the tibial baseplate, that point of the artificial knee that connects with the lower leg bone (tibia), becomes detached due to debonding. When debonding occurs the lower leg is free to rotate from side to side and the foot can actually rotate 90 degrees or more out of alignment. Debonding is excruciatingly painful and causes the bone to quickly fray and wear away and the only fix is to have painful and expensive revision surgery to insert a shim in the DePuy device to make up the loose space and re-glue the device. If a segment of damaged bone has to be removed a new knee replacement device must be installed so as to prevent one leg being shorter than the other.

Those suffering from the faulty DePuy knee replacement device are advised to seek the counsel of a knowledgeable and experienced DePuy knee replacement attorney to see if they qualify to file a claim against DePuy Synthes and their parent company Johnson & Johnson for bringing a faulty medical device to market. DePuy marketing reps are on record as saying the device should last up to 20 years when in fact many patients report the knee debonded almost immediately.

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