DePuy Knee Glue Failure Prompts Lawsuits

DePuy Knee Lawsuit News

De-bonding due to infection is the leading cause of needing knee revision surgery

Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - DePuy knee replacement failure is signaled when a patient feels the undeniable sense of instability and searing pain that occurs when the DePuy knee becomes infected and comes unglued. There is ample reason to believe that the glue that is used in attempting to secure the artificial knee to the tibia and femur is itself incompatible with the human immune system. DePuy knee patient report infections when the glue is attacked as a foreign substance by the body's natural immune system. As a result of the defective and dangerous bonding material, new bonding agents are including antibiotics mixed in with the glue in anticipation of the glue's rejection. According to the American Joint Replacement Registry "infection as a leading cause of TKA and THA revisions from 2012 to 2016." Helio.com adds "(knee bonding) failures due to periprosthetic joint infection are expected to increase at an annual rate of between 38,000 cases and 270,000 cases by the year 2030."

Knee replacement device de-bonding is the main reason why patients are hiring knee replacement lawyers and filing claims against DePuy Synthes, maker of the Depuy Knee Replacement device. The DePuy knee, in particular, becomes infected and unglued in an unacceptably high number of patients. De-bonding, as it is called, requires immediate knee revision surgery to remove the older broken knee and address the infection that is occurring. This is done by packing the open wound with an antibiotic spacer device inserted in place of the artificial knee for a period of weeks during which time the patient is immobilized. If the infection grows out of control, which infections are prone to do, amputation of the leg above the knee may be required. If all goes well, the new and improved DePuy Revision knee will be hammered into the femur and tibia and re-glued. Hopefully, the glue will hold the device in place. If the patient is overweight, however, chances are that the glue joint will not hold are higher and may require that the process is repeated. All the while patients are left immobilized, sometimes even bedridden, and in more pain, than the osteoarthritis, they initially suffered from.

Expect more lawsuits as more and more people become senior citizens and more and more suffer from osteoarthritis. Senior citizens dominate the knee replacement market as they seek to alleviate the knee pain they are suffering from. On the surface knee replacement sounds like a good idea, however, in reality, few knee replacement patients ever return to the active lifestyle they enjoyed earlier in life nor have less knee pain than before the surgery. Knee replacement devices are fraught with complications yet continue to be recommended by orthopedic surgeons as a patient's best alternative. Experts disagree and their studies indicate that most knee replacement patients are dissatisfied and feel that their doctor oversold the device's benefits and under-explained the complications that could occur.

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