Lawsuits Filed for Faulty Durom Cups

by Maxwell Schmickman

Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implants had been used successfully in Europe for 3 years prior to being approved for use in the United States in 2006. Less than two years later, the device had already been implanted in more than 12,000 American patients, and numerous problems with the implants were already beginning to surface. American doctors started searching for reasons the procedures had failed and pinpointed the cup as a defective product that was prone to problems.

Patients who suffer from the use of defective prosthetic devices are protected by law in most U.S. states. These laws entitle a patient who experienced pain, incurred medical expenses, or lost wages due to a defect in a medical device to receive compensation for their losses. Zimmer has not yet conceded that their product is defective because of its success rate in the European market, but in order to give itself time to develop a better training program for American surgeons, Zimmer voluntarily pulled the cup from the American market in July, 2008.

There are many websites on the Internet of attorneys who feel they can help patients file successful suits against Zimmer. Perform a search using the keywords “Zimmer Durom Cup Lawsuits” if you’d like to contact one of them. The number of failed implants is growing, and these attorneys who have researched the problem believe that patients have a good case against the company. Many physicians are in agreement with the attorneys as they estimate that within a few years’ time hundreds of the devices will fail causing revision surgery to become necessary.

Physicians who have already performed exploratory surgeries to determine the cause of their patients’ problems have discovered that many of the cups have loosened a great deal over time. In fact, one doctor reported that he found a cup that had loosened so much that it popped from its socket when he touched it. In other patients surgeons have found that the device has actually migrated a short distance within the body. Zimmer cites the success of the cup in Europe as basis for its belief that there is nothing defective about the device, but physicians believe that almost 6% of all Durom Cups will fail and need revision surgery within the next couple of years.

Stockholders in Zimmer stocks feel that the company did not pull the product from the market quickly enough causing additional problems for patients. With this feeling in mind, stockholders filed a class action lawsuit in Indiana seeking damages for those who invested in company stocks between January and July, 2008. These stockholders and their attorneys believe that Zimmer should have suspended sales before January 22, 2008 when a large number of problems began to surface.

Although Zimmer still contends that their product is not at fault in causing these problems, citing instead the failure of physicians to be properly trained in the correct methods of implanting them, they announced in October, 2008 that they had set aside $47.5 million to pay claims from the resulting lawsuits. This came after July numbers showed that the failure rate of the Durom Cup could be as high as 5.7%. Per the company the money they have earmarked for claim payment will be used for “revisions associated with surgeries that predate the company’s voluntary suspension and which also occur within two years of the original surgery date.

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