DePuy Knee Patients May Require Many Years of Physical Rehabilitation

DePuy Knee Lawsuit News

Patients requiring a revision surgery to replace the faulty DePuy Knee Replacement System require a second, painful, lengthy rehabilitation period

Tuesday, June 12, 2018 - DePuy knee replacement patients, most of whom are senior citizens over age 65 and as old as 85, wanting to know how long they can expect their new knee to last, are told by their physicians that they can expect it to last for the rest of their lives. The problem is that many senior citizens are already experiencing bone loss due to Osteoporosis and their weakened, thinner bones are not strong enough to take being sawed in two, the knee and bone removed and then re-inserted into the DePuy artificial knee at the point called the tibial baseplate. Looseness occurs within a week or two of having the device implanted and the cement used is not enough to make up for the lack of an initial snug fit. Patients are then forced to undergo a second or revision surgery to try and replace the faulty baseplate.

Loosening at the point where the shin bone is inserted into the DePuy knee causes excruciating pain and can result in a fracture of the tibia. When the tibia comes loose, the foot is free to turn from left to right and never properly lines up again. The patient is then reduced to walking slowly with a walker and is at a much greater risk of tripping and falling. Such a condition will never heal itself and patients are forced to undergo revision surgery. In an unacceptably high number of patients. the DePuy knee fails to live up to its advertised life of 15-20 years, and for some 15-20 days may be more like it.

Depending on a patient's health, physical fitness, and weight, it can take months of painful physical therapy to regain the confidence to even walk normally again. Most people are overweight, and a lack of mobility only exacerbates their condition. For some physical therapy for an artificial knee can last years. The more weight one puts on the greater the risk that the DePuy knee joint tibial baseplate will come loose but that is not the patient's fault.

More is expected of the knee joint than any other joint in the human body and the knee carries a person's full weight with every step taken. Falling can cause a person to tumble down a flight of stairs or hit their head on a sharp object. With so much at stake, the chance of the artificial knee failing and causing a catastrophic injury is an unacceptable risk to take. If a person takes 5000 steps in a day, that is 5000 chances for the knee to fail. With the odds stacked so heavily in favor of the artificial knee failing, it is no wonder patients that have had to undergo revision surgery are hiring a DePuy Knee Replacement failure lawyer to file a claim against DePuy Synthese and their parent company Johnson & Johnson for bringing a faulty medical device to market. Their cases were bolstered recently when DePuy launched a second artificial knee, the DePuy "Revision" Knee Replacement to be inserted in patients where the original DePuy knee failed.

More Recent DePuy Knee Lawsuit News: