Study Confirms: Metal-on-Metal Hips No Better Than Traditional Artificial Hip Implants

I've written frequently about the the problems with DePuy and other types of metal on metal artificial hips:

• Lack of testing under the FDA 510(k) approval process
• High metal on metal hip failure rates
• Doctors were paid millions to promote these hips
• FDA ordered hip manufacturers to study metal on metal artificial hips
• Lawsuits over DePuy metal on metal hips consolidated in MDL litigation

Now, a study published in BMJ has confirmed that, not only are metal on metal hips dangerous, they don't work any better than traditional artificial hip implants.

Older hip implants made with metal-on-polyethylene or ceramic-on-polyethylene surfaces are associated with low failure rates. However, newer metal-on-metal hip implants have been linked with severe cases of accumulation of metal ions in patients' tissues.

Source: HealthDay

The study's researchers worked with the FDA to evaluate various types of hips in 18 studies involving more than 3,000 patients and 800,000 operations. The study found no difference between the various types of hip devices in terms of the patients' ability to function normally or the patients' quality of life.

Earlier this year, The New York Times reported on a New England Journal of Medicine study that found metal-on-metal artificial hips failed at nearly 3 times the rate of other artificial hips. The MOM failure problem is so bad that the FDA has ordered an in-depth study of MOM artificial hip systems.

Metal-on-metal hips include the DePuy ASR SL Acetabular Head System, DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System, DePuy Pinnacle artificial hip systems, as well as certain artificial hips manufactured by Stryker, Biomet, and Zimmer.

[DePuy Hip Recall: Frequently Asked Questions]

[More on DePuy Hip Problems and Recall]

Read More:

• Comparative assessment of implantable hip devices with different bearing surfaces: systematic appraisal of evidence [Art Sedrakyan, Sharon-Lise T Normand, Stefan Dabic, Samantha Jacobs, Stephen Graves, Danica Marinac-Dabic at BMJ]
• New Hip Implants No Better Than Older Ones, Study Finds [Steven Reinberg at HealthDay]
• New Hip Implants Work No Better than Old Style [Todd Neale at medpage TODAY]

(c) Copyright 2011 Brett A. Emison

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