Artificial Knee Joint Infections Require Painful and Debilitating Revision Surgery

DePuy Knee Lawsuit News

Infections continue to be the leading cause of knee replacement device failure and are seldom anticipated by patients who blindly take their doctor's advice

Tuesday, March 26, 2019 - Failing to maintain a sterile environment as well as the sterile handling of surgical instruments could lead to a patient developing a potentially deadly infection. The surgical incision is a gateway between the contaminated outside world and the body's natural healthy state and most surgical infections occur at that site. A surgical patient could develop an infection carried by the doctor or staff as well as from infected surgical equipment. When a medical device is implanted its sterile state could have been compromised during its manufacture or packaging. When a medical device is implanted, the risk of infection increases. As a matter of fact, infection is a leading cause of artificial knee replacement failure as infections develop from the glue used to bond the device to the knee.

So many DePuy Replacement knees fail from glue debonding due to infection that the DePuy knee replacement device glue now comes combined with antibiotics in anticipation of infection. The new glue compound is of little help, however, as the new mixture of adhesive and antibiotic significantly reduces the bonding agent's strength and causes the artificial knee to come loose and put the patient in instant danger. When an artificial knee debonds revision surgery is required. The American Joint Replacement Registry cites infection as a leading cause of the need for total knee replacement and, joint infection is expected to increase at an annual rate of around 100,000 cases per year by the year 2030, according to an article in Healio.com. Families and individuals that have had a knee replacement surgery in which the devices failed the patient leaving them with worse pain than before surgery are seeking help from the top national DePuy knee replacement attorneys.

It can be extremely painful when the glue used to affix an artificial knee to the tibia or femur is compromised and the lower part of the leg is free to rotate unnaturally. When what was intended to be a forward pointing foot instantly twists 45 degrees a person can suffer a catastrophic fall. Artificial knee debonding is a sudden occurrence and there is no time to plan as one may be trying to navigate a flight of stairs or walk through a traffic intersection or other dangerous pathway. Debonding due to infection requires a revision surgery that can is more complex than the initial knee replacement. Revision knee replacement surgery where there is infection is broken down into stages that can incapacitate the patient for months. The first stage is to surgically remove the existing knee replacement device which can often be so loose that the surgeon just lifts it out. The next stage is to pack the open knee joint with an antibiotic-filled spacer joint and to start the patient on full-spectrum intravenous antibiotics. Finally, when the infection clears and any bone debridement has been taken care of, the patient is fitted with a new, custom-designed knee joint. Knee replacement infections requiring revision surgeries can occur in up to 20% of knee replacement recipients many of whom anticipated the knee joint to last around 20 years as advertised by the company.

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