Debonding, Infections, and Metal Hyper-Sensitivity Can Require DePuy Knee Replacement Revision Surgery

DePuy Knee Lawsuit News

DePuy knee replacement patients are furious when additional surgeries are required to repair their artificial knees

Monday, October 1, 2018 - Thousands of DePuy knee replacement patients have registered their dissatisfaction with the results of their knee replacement surgery on the FDA's MAUDE online database. Patients considering knee replacement surgery should not allow their doctor to rush them into surgery but should take their time to evaluate all of their options. It is essential to read what others have actually experienced and not rely on a doctor's overly optimistic prognosis. Most knee replacements are performed on senior citizens which for any number of reasons would have been better off continuing their pain medications, living a more sedentary lifestyle and walking with the aid of a cane.

One reason that the DePuy Knee device often fails is that the glue that affixes it to the tibia and femur often fails. When this happens, a surgeon may be tempted to experiment with a different glue that could produce even worse results. A recent complaint registered in May of 2017 was from a DePuy patient that was injured when the knee replacement device debonded from their tibia. The FDA stated: "Patient was revised (revision surgery) to address tibial tray loosening at the cement/implant interface. Competitor cement was used."

In addition to many DePuy knees failing due to debonding, other patients have developed an infection or have had allergic reactions to the Nickel component of the device. Such an infection or reaction to the metal can cause the device to loosen making walking unstable and dangerous. "The patient was revised (revision surgery) to address aseptic loosening of the tibial tray secondary to potential nickel sensitivity. The report states the failure was due to insufficient ingrowth to the metaphyseal sleeve, and not at the implant/cement or cement/bone interfaces. "

Knee replacement patients that have had their knee replacement device prematurely fail are left in constant pain and need to use a knee brace and a cane to merely get from place to place. Going up or down stairs is out of the question as is any type of physical activity. Knee replacement patients may have to undergo multiple knee revision surgeries when each one just makes the situation worse. In the most severe of circumstances, DePuy knee replacement failures have wound up having to have their lower leg amputated altogether. The reasons most often given for the amputations are chronic infections and aseptic loosening. The National Institute of Health approached the topic of DePuy Knee amputations and wrote the following: "From 1983 to 1992, nine above-knee amputations were performed in eight patients for complications after total knee arthroplasty. The mean time from the initial knee replacement to amputation was 9.7 years. The average age of the four men and four women was 72 years. Eight knees had chronic infection and one had intractable pain after four revision attempts for aseptic loosening. Most patients had two revision arthroplasties after the original implant. In this series, the common factors that lead to amputation were multiple revision attempts in the presence of chronic infection, severe bone loss, and intractable pain. Earlier consideration of arthrodesis rather than multiple revision attempts is recommended to avoid such a poor outcome." (2)

Sources:

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfmaude/

(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8119014

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