Stryker Hip Implants are Causing Serious Injury to Thousands of Patients

For thousands of patients throughout the United States, Stryker Corporation’s Rejuvenate and ABG II metal hip implants are failing and causing serious, and even life-threatening injuries. To date, Stryker Corporation has paid out over $1.4 Billion in settlement funds to patients that were injured or required revision surgery after receiving a defective Stryker metal hip implant.

It has been repeatedly proven that these Stryker hip implant devices fail at an alarmingly high rate. Thousands of patients that received either a Rejuvenate or ABG II metal hip implant have experienced extreme pain, severe side effects, and often require second revision surgery to remove the defective device. Revision surgery is a painful, expensive, and dangerous process.

Patients that were harmed after receiving a defective Stryker Corp modular-neck hip implant device have a right to seek compensation for their medical bills, pain & suffering, and rehabilitation expenses.

Risks Associated With the Stryker Rejuvenate Modular Hip System

Both the Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II modular-neck hip stems were recalled from the market after it was proven that there is an increased risk for the artificial metal joints in these devices to corrode and break down quickly. This corrosion generates increasing amounts of toxic metal debris that enters a patient’s surrounding tissues and bloodstream, causing dangerous side effects.

The harmful metal particles released by the defective Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II metal hip implants cause an inflammatory response which results in a local reaction. This adverse local tissue reaction, known as metallosis, can ultimately affect the entire body.

Studies show crevice corrosions are clinical issues with dual modular components in the Rejuvenate and ABG II hip implant models. Corrosion remains the main issue in the failure of modular implants and is caused by multiple mechanisms, including:

• Crevice corrosion– Surface damage that occurs at, or immediately adjacent to, the gap between two joining surfaces.
• Fretting corrosion– Damage at the edge of a metal surface that is caused by repeated motion.
• Galvanic corrosion– Damage caused by contact between two electrochemically dissimilar metals.

Due to the harmful metallic ions released by these forms of corrosion, many patients have developed a range of adverse reactions, including:

• Osteolysis (bone dissolution)
• Synovitis (inflammation of the synovial membrane)
• Pseudo-tumors
• Fluid in the joint
• Tissue and bone necrosis
• Hypersensitivity to metal

Adverse reactions that affect the entire body include:

• Decreased total lymphocyte cells, which defends against tumors and virally infected cells
• Decreased CD8+T cells, which fight intracellular pathogens and malignancies
• DNA changes
• Chromosomal aberrations

Long-term toxicity of metal particles is not well known, but doctors have expressed concerns about the exposure to high levels of cobalt and chromium ions and there are numerous reports showing significant effects on organs away from the hip joint. These heavy metal ions have been linked to serious illness.

There are isolated case reports on a small number of patients in which high levels of metal ions in the bloodstream may have caused other types of symptoms or illnesses elsewhere in the body, including effects on the heart, nervous system, and thyroid gland. We know from our work on other Metal-on-Metal joint implants that exposure to heavy metals such as cobalt and titanium is a very real concern for patients. Contact Graves McLain – Product Liability Law Firm to discuss legal options if your implant has caused systemic metal toxicity or serious health complications.