Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implant Device

If you have recently been provided with a hip implant procedure replacing one or both hips with the Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implant Device, and the device is now failing, you should contact a skilled attorney at Shoop | A Professional Law Corporation immediately. Zimmer's Durom Cup is an orthopedic device used in total hip replacements, which are surgical procedures in which the patient's hip joint is resurfaced and replaced with an artificial implant. It is conventionally used to repair joint/bone damage or to treat arthritis pain in the hip and joint area.

There have been significant issues with the design of the Zimmer Durom Cup, and allegations include issues with respect to the outside of the Durom Cup being sprayed with a titanium-plasma coating which is intended to facilitate non-rejection by the human body. Zimmer originally intended for the Durom Cup to facilitate the patient's own bone into the exterior portion or shell of the cup to secure it in place.

Unfortunately, the Durom Cup has proven that, rather than function in this intended manner, the Durom Cup implant resists bone growth and comes loose and/or pops out and away from the hip socket, which can cause severe damage to the pelvic bone. Several lawsuits, including those filed by this office, allege that this unintended result also causes devastating pain to patients and necessitates painful and potentially risky revision surgery to remove the failed Durom Cup and replace it with a properly functioning device.

There are additional allegations regarding the Durom Cup's metal-on-metal design, which was marketed by Zimmer as being a more durable design. These allegations maintain that, when introducing the Durom Cup, Zimmer represented to its consumers and their physicians that the Durom Cup would provide greater range of motion and less wear on the bearing than traditional hip replacement components, thereby making it an ideal product for younger, active patients. Contrary to Zimmer's representations, the Durom Cup is prone to an unprecedented and unacceptable failure rate for hip replacement implant components.

Moreover, since Zimmer first began to market and sell the Durom Cup in the United States in 2006 through about July of 2008, the product labeling and product information for the Durom Cup failed to contain adequate information, instructions, and warnings concerning implantation of the product and the risks that the Durom Cup can loosen and separate from the acetabulum in patients.

Despite Zimmer's knowledge of the defects and serious injuries associated with the use and implantation of the Durom Cup, Defendants engaged in a marketing and advertising program which, by way of affirmative and material misrepresentations and omissions, falsely and deceptively sought to create the image and impression that the use of the Durom Cup was safe and effective.

Since at least 2007, surgeons implanting the Durom Cup complained to Zimmer that the device was failing in their patients, many of whom had to undergo painful, invasive and expensive revision surgeries. One of these surgeons was Dr. Larry Dorr, who warned Zimmer in 2007 of the high rate of Durom Cup failures. At the time Dr. Dorr warned Zimmer of the high rate of failures, he was a Zimmer consultant and performed thousands of hip replacement surgeries. In particular, Dr. Dorr informed Zimmer that x-rays showed that the Durom Cup was failing because it was loosening or separating from the bone, rather than fusing to it, causing patients such severe and crippling pain while the metal cup moved about the hip socket and rubbed against the bone.

In April 2008, Dr. Dorr warned other orthopedists about the cup failures his patients were experiencing and urged Zimmer to stop selling the product.

The FDA website currently indicates that Zimmer was to suspend all marketing and distribution of the Durom cup in the United States pending completion of user training and revision of the instructions for surgical technique, and further, that Zimmer would conduct a removal of all copies of the current surgical technique document and replace it with appropriately revised surgical technique instructions and or documents.

Quality Assistance

We have a highly trained staff and have dedicated our product liability practice to ensuring that individuals find justice after suffering devastating injuries and pain following the failure and/or revision of a failed implant. The lawyers at our firm are taking on many hip implant recall cases and we welcome the opportunity to assist you as well.

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