DePuy Knee Patients Should Know When Enough is Enough

At what point in a patient's knee replacement surgery recovery does one finally admit that there is a serious problem?

Friday, November 9, 2018 - There are the usual post-operative pains such as soreness, redness, and tenderness at the point where the incision has been made, but those symptoms should subside over the period of two to three months. For many patients, they persist, however, and include severe pain, warm red skin increasingly farther away from the incision indicating an infection, wobbliness and continued swelling. Not only do some DePuy knees fail to live up to the expectations of having a 10-20 year life expectancy, but many also fail in only 1-2 years and some never work, to begin with. When the DePuy knee fails, complex revision surgery is sometimes necessary to relieve the pain and repair the bone and tissue damage the device and the infection have caused.

The high number of revision surgeries needed to repair and replace the faulty DePuy knee should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with DePuy Synthes. The company has a checkered history of rushing sub-standard and faulty medical devices to market. Lawsuits against the company accused them of putting corporate profits ahead of patient safety. DePuy Synthes has spent billions since 2010 defending and settling over 10,000 lawsuits as well as paying compensatory and punitive damages to the victims of their faulty hip and knee replacement devices.

Several of the DePuy knee's component parts have been the subject of company recalls due to higher than average rates of revision surgeries. The Meniscal Bearing Insert of the LCS Knee System was the subject of an FDA Class II recall in March of 2015. The FDA warned surgeons in worldwide of the need to resurface the patella when preparing the bone to accept the knee device. "The LCS COMPLETE RPS Knee System has higher rates of revision in Australia when the native patella is not resurfaced when compared to other unresurfaced PS implants." A class I FDA recall of The LPS Lower Extremity Dovetail was issued in July of 2013 due to a number of patients reporting pain from fractures of the femur. DePuy gave the reason for the recall as "The LPS Lower Extremity Dovetail Intercalary component has the potential for fracture of the female component when exposed to certain physiological loads."

If you or a loved one are experiencing abnormal pain in the area of your DePuy knee replacement you should consult a different physician from the one who implanted the device in the first place. It may be wise to seek a review of your knee problems with an orthopedic surgeon from another town or state to make sure they are not "on the same team." Many DePuy knee replacement doctors will be hesitant to admit that anything is wrong to protect themselves from potential litigation, leaving the patient in worse condition than if they had done nothing at all. If you are suffering pain or a looseness in your artificial knee, you may have a debonding issue where the glue that holds the knee device in place has failed. You also may have developed an infection and/or experiencing bone loss from the malfunctioning knee. National attorneys handling DePuy knee lawsuits allow persons and families harmed by early DePuy knee failure to seek compensation for the medical expenses, pain and suffering that have resulted from this medical device.

DePuy Knee Patients Should Know When Enough is Enough

At what point in a patient's knee replacement surgery recovery does one finally admit that there is a serious problem?

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