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Wright Medical Hip Replacement

Motley Rice is accepting cases involving recipients of Wright Medical Technology hip device replacements who have suffered intense pain or injuries following hip replacement surgery.

If you received a Wright Medical Technology Hip Replacement and have experienced some of the symptoms listed below, contact your physician immediately. Also, do not release any medical information to Wright representatives or sign a release before speaking to a lawyer. If you are told that you need hip revision surgery, make sure that the removed component parts are preserved, and consult your counsel to ensure they are saved correctly.

If you or someone you know has experienced severe pain or other injuries after the implantation of a Wright Medical hip replacement device, contact attorney John Duane by email or by calling 1.800.768.4026 .

Wright Medical Hip Replacement Lawsuits

On Feb. 8, 2012, the court centralized all product liability suits involving the following Wright implants: Conserve®,Dynasty®, Profemur® and the Lineage® line of products. The cases are centralized in the Northern District of Georgia and assigned to U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey, Jr.

People who have filed lawsuits claim that Wright Medical Technology manufactured defective metal-on-metal hip implants and failed to warn patients of the implants' potential risks, including that they may fail within a few years after being implanted.

These metal-on-metal hip replacements are allegedly causing excessive heat and friction between the metal cup and the metal ball, which is resulting in excess metal wear debris. This metal debris can cause metal toxicity by releasing metal particles into the surrounding soft tissue and bloodstream. Metal toxicity can cause many health problems, including cysts, necrosis (the premature death of cells in living tissue), rash, cardiac problems and more.

Wright Medical Technology Hip Replacement recipients are also reporting: 

  • Crunching or popping noises
  • Difficulty standing or walking
  • Hip fractures or dislocation
  • Infection
  • Severe pain
  • Tissue inflammation

Studies show that approximately one in 12 recipients of metal-on-metal hip replacements will require corrective surgery within five years of receiving the implant.

Wright Medical's Conserve series of hip replacement implants includes the following devices and components, which have also been named in lawsuits:

  • The Conserve Femoral Surface Replacement
  • The Conserve Plus Total Resurfacing Hip System
  • The Conserve Total A-Class Advanced Metal
  • The Conserve Total Hip System

Ongoing Concerns with Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacements

Read about the FDA's efforts to strengthen regulation of all-metal hip implants in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

There has been controversy surrounding whether the benefit of metal hip implants outweighs the potential risks. In June 2012, the FDA held a two-day advisory panel meeting to discuss how to monitor the more than half-million U.S. patients with metal hip replacements given the results of recent studies and the thousands of adverse reports the FDA has received in connection to the devices. Metal-on-metal devices were originally thought to be a more durable alternative to ceramic or plastic models, but some foreign studies show that they may deteriorate faster, expose patients to high levels of metals such as cobalt and chromium, and fail at a higher rate than older implants. According to a report by The Associated Press, the FDA "has asked manufacturers like Johnson & Johnson, Zimmer Holdings, Inc., and Biomet, Inc., to conduct long-term, follow-up studies of more than 100 metal-on-metal hips on the U.S. market."