Since 2006 over 12,000 hip replacement patients in the United States have been implanted with a Zimmer Durom Cup Replacement component. The one-piece design of these implants makes them radically different from the popular replacement devices of previous decades which were made in three parts. Doctors were impressed by the high success rate enjoyed by the cups in the European market in the three years prior to their approval in the United States. However, when the devices started failing in many American patients, physicians rapidly became alarmed.
Soon after the surgeries began in 2006, patients started revisiting their doctors with complaints. Naturally, they knew it would take a reasonable amount of time for full recovery, but they were experiencing pain well after the expected three-month recovery time. Upon examination, doctors determined that a large number of these patients needed revision surgery to correct problems. These physicians now believe that as many as 5.7% of all those receiving the Durom Cup Replacements prior to July, 2008 will need revisions.
After studying the problems from January through July, 2008, Zimmer finally pulled the Durom Cup Replacement device from American markets. After devising a new Internet training program for surgeons, the cup was reintroduced in August, 2008. Only doctors who complete the online training are now able to do the implant surgeries, because the extra training was designed to drastically cut down on the number of revisions that will need to be done. About half of all doctors have refused so far to take the training. They no longer have enough faith in the Zimmer product to go to any extra work in order to use it.
A lot of the unhappy patients who have experienced pain and suffering due to the loosening of their Durom Cup Replacements have filed lawsuits against the company. In addition, a group of stockholders in Indiana filed a class action suit stating that the company was negligent in informing investors about the problems in a timely manner. Even though the company did a lot of testing on the product and found no defects, they announced that they had set aside $47.5 million to pay these claims. They do admit that they were at fault for not offering adequate training to physicians who were using their product.
Patients who are experiencing unexplained hip pain more than three months after having hip replacement surgery, have loosening and slippage in their artificial hip implant, or require hip replacement revision surgery are being encouraged by product liability attorneys to file suit against the company. Per the laws in most states, patients are entitled to compensation for their pain and suffering, medical expenses, and lost wages due to defects in the Zimmer Durom Cup Replacements they received prior to July, 2008.
The Durom Cup Replacement is available and being used again in the U.S., but many physicians are still having doubts about the procedure and are choosing other options for their own patients. They still believe that the problem lies within the design of the implant and are hesitant to give it another chance. What patients need to look at is the fact that while there has been a 5.7% failure rate for patients using the Durom Cup implant, there has also been a success rate of almost 94.3%.