Stryker Accolade implant revision patients report high blood metal levels with LFIT cobalt femoral heads. Mismatched implant metals can cause metallosis and dislocations requiring painful revision surgery.
Over 500,000 patients in the United Stated were implanted with artificial “metal-on-metal” hip implants, also known as all-metal hips, during hip replacement surgery. There was a rash of problems with the M-o-M hips. To avoid those problems, doctors implanted Metal-on-polyethylene hips, but doctors then found there were still mismatched metals in the hip implants.
Many people opted for polyethylene hip replacements because device manufacturers claimed the new hip implants — including ball-and-neck modular components made from metals like cobalt, chromium and titanium alloys— were more durable and provided a greater range of motion than earlier-generation artificial implants. Unfortunately, the marketing claims about greater durability, greater range of motion, and fewer problems from metal debris have been proven to be false.
Hip implant patients have relied on promises of increased mobility and lessened pain via new and enhanced technologies, only to end up with worse pain and significant complications. In lawsuits alleging injuries like metallosis (build-up of metal debris in soft body tissue) and trunnionosis (wear of the femoral head-neck interface acknowledged as a growing cause of hip implant failures), patients have sought medical costs and damages for pain and suffering because of additional surgeries and faulty implants.
A couple, Lee Ann and Frank P., recently filed a Stryker Accolade lawsuit in U.S. District Court. This lawsuit was filed on Aug. 10, 2017 in the Northern District of Georgia. The plaintiffs, a married couple, are residents of Hagerstown, Md.
The defendant named in this Stryker Accolade lawsuit is Howmedica Osteonics which does business as the Stryker Corporation. While Stryker does business throughout the U.S. and globally, its headquarters is in the State of New Jersey.
At issue in this Stryker Accolade lawsuit is a hip prosthesis component known as the Accolade TMZF hip stem designed for implantation in patients as part of a total hip arthroscopy surgery.
The Accolade TMZF hip stem is most often combined with the LFIT Anatomic V40 Femoral Head which then articulates with an acetabular lining.
On March 16, 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Stryker Corporation’s application to market the Accolade TMZF hip stem. The stem was made of a proprietary alloy not used in other hip prosthetics. The alloy was made of titanium, zinc, iron, and molybdenum.
The company patented the new alloy and promoted the component as less rigid but somehow tougher than other alloys in use in other prosthetic devices.
Per the legal documentation of this Stryker Accolade lawsuit, the primary plaintiff, Lee Ann P. was implanted with the Accolade TMZF hip stem and LFIT Anatomical V40 Femoral Head on Dec. 18, 2009.
The LFIT was one of the femoral head systems designed to be used with the Accolade and it was made of a chromium and cobalt alloy.
The Stryker Accolade lawsuit alleges that Lee Ann P. experienced almost immediate problems with the Accolade hip stem upon implantation. Those problems included grave discomfort, pain, and suffering.
She presented herself for an initial review of her symptoms and the results of her workup revealed that the implant had failed. Blood testing showed high levels of titanium, cobalt, and chromium indicating metal poisoning from the prosthetic.
The plaintiff had the device remove. She found out that not only was the Accolade TMZF hip stem very deformed, but severe and likely permanent hard and soft tissue damage had occurred. She and her husband are bringing these counts against Howmedica Osteonics:
Count One – Common Law Negligence; Count Two – Breach of Express Warranty under Georgia Law; Count Three – Strict Liability, Failure to Warn under Georgia Law; Count Four – Strict Liability, Design Defect under Georgia Law; Count Five – Strict Liability, Manufacturing Defect under Georgia Law; and Count Six – Loss of Consortium for Spouse, Frank P.
Both wife and husband plaintiffs are asking for a trial by jury, awarding of compensatory and actual damages as the jury sees fit to primary plaintiff Lee Ann P., awarding of loss of consortium damages, and all court costs, miscellaneous litigation costs, attorney’s fees, and post-judgement interest.
All federally-filed Stryker LFit V40 hip lawsuits are consolidated in April before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The New Jersey Supreme Court has recently designated all cases involving Stryker LFit Cobalt Chromium V40 Femoral Heads as part of a multicounty litigation (MCL), which will be centralized before Superior Court Judge Rachelle Harz in Bergen County. Howmedica Osteonics Corp., and its subsidiary Stryker Orthopaedics, re headquartered in New Jersey.
