Doctors May Be Overselling The Benefits of Knee Replacement Surgery

DePuy Knee Lawsuit News

Orthopedic surgeons make a lot of money implanting artificial knees while studies indicate the results fail to live up to most patient's expectations

Monday, September 10, 2018 - The objective of knee replacement surgery is to reduce pain and increase mobility. With over one million total knee replacement surgeries performed over more than a decade, there is sufficient data to determine whether or not knee replacements restore a patient's mobility. This is usually true when the procedure is performed on patients suffering from advanced osteoarthritis as is the case with many senior citizens. The older a person gets, the more worn out their knees become and the more pain they are in. According to the FDA, most knee replacement patients are in less pain after the procedure, however, studies indicate little improvement in a patient's mobility.

One such study knee replacement mobility performed by the Department of Orthopaedics and Division of Physical Therapy, Health Sciences Center South, West Virginia University, School of Medicine, in Morgantown, West Virginia sought to quantify the differences between a knee replacement patient actual physical experience and their pre-surgery expectations after having knee replacement due to osteoarthritis. The results were underwhelming, to say the least. The study measured the "type, frequency, intensity, and duration" of physical activity before and after surgery in 90 patients and at the 12-month level post-op. The study showed that most patients were disappointed in their actual results and had a high-level of optimism dashed. The study showed that the actual amount of decrease in their physical activity was the "equivalent to walking 14 fewer miles per week," and recommended that patients should be educated on having a more realistic expectation prior having surgery.

Simply failing to meet one's expectations can be the least of a DePuy knee replacement patient's problems. DePuy knee patient may experience inflammation, fluid and painful swelling from the time they have had surgery up to the point, years later, when revision surgery becomes mandatory. Such swelling results in a lack of flexibility and the result is constant pain. DePuy knee patients also have reported a lack of confidence in the knee when undergoing routine physical activities such as walking up and down stairs. Most DePuy knee revision surgeries are the result of tibial debonding, the loosening of the device at the point it comes in contact with the tibia (shin bone). Surgeons have expressed concern when performing the revision that the device usually can be removed by hand and that no bonding has occurred at all. When a DePuy knee device is debonded, the lower portion of the leg is free to rotate. Such rotation can place the foot at a 90-degree angle to the intended direction the patient is walking and result in excruciating pain and a catastrophic fall. Debonding also can cause the tibia to fracture and the twisting of the device usually causes bone deterioration further complicating revision surgery.

The DePuy knee replacement has failed in a greater number of patients than all of their competitors combined. Close to 1500 incidences of DePuy knee replacement failures have been reported to the FDA resulting in over 500 patients having been forced to undergo revision surgery. Attorneys handling DePuy knee lawsuits are helping families nationwide.

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