Thursday, February 26, 2009

Zimmer Durom Cup Lawsuits are Pending

By Maxwell Schmickman

In 2006 Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implants were approved for use in the United States. Within less than 2 years, more than 12,000 patients were functioning using a Durom Cup as a replacement device for a defective hip joint. Although these implants had been used for 3 years in Europe prior to being approved in the U.S. and had exhibited a high rate of success, in the U.S. patients started developing problems, some almost immediately after surgery. Their doctors, looking for reasons why the implants failed, decided that the Durom Cup was a defective device.

Patients who suffer from the use of defective prosthetic devices are protected by law in most U.S. states. These laws entitle a patient who experienced pain, incurred medical expenses, or lost wages due to a defect in a medical device to receive compensation for their losses. Zimmer has not yet conceded that their product is defective because of its success rate in the European market, but in order to give itself time to develop a better training program for American surgeons, Zimmer voluntarily pulled the cup from the American market in July, 2008.

By using Google to search the Internet for "Zimmer Durom Cup Lawsuits" you can find many websites of attorneys who feel that patients have a case against Zimmer and offer to help them file lawsuits. The number of implant failures continues to grow, and these attorneys who have taken it upon themselves to become involved truly believe that Zimmer is at fault. Physicians tend to agree and estimate that hundreds of the devices will fail within the next few years.

Physicians who have already performed exploratory surgeries to determine the cause of their patients' problems have discovered that many of the cups have loosened a great deal over time. In fact, one doctor reported that he found a cup that had loosened so much that it popped from its socket when he touched it. In other patients surgeons have found that the device has actually migrated a short distance within the body. Zimmer cites the success of the cup in Europe as basis for its belief that there is nothing defective about the device, but physicians believe that almost 6% of all Durom Cups will fail and need revision surgery within the next couple of years.

Stockholders in Zimmer stocks feel that the company did not pull the product from the market quickly enough causing additional problems for patients. With this feeling in mind, stockholders filed a class action lawsuit in Indiana seeking damages for those who invested in company stocks between January and July, 2008. These stockholders and their attorneys believe that Zimmer should have suspended sales before January 22, 2008 when a large number of problems began to surface.

Although Zimmer still contends that their product is not at fault in causing these problems, citing instead the failure of physicians to be properly trained in the correct methods of implanting them, they announced in October, 2008 that they had set aside $47.5 million to pay claims from the resulting lawsuits. This came after July numbers showed that the failure rate of the Durom Cup could be as high as 5.7%. Per the company the money they have earmarked for claim payment will be used for "revisions associated with surgeries that predate the company's voluntary suspension and which also occur within two years of the original surgery date. - 17944

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