If you are the recipient of a DePuy hip implant device it is very important that you know which brand you were implanted with so you can be aware of the individual characteristics. Of course the primary difference between the ASR and its successor, the Pinnacle, is that the ASR was recalled in August, 2010, while the Pinnacle has not been recalled.

The theory behind the all-metal hip implant was to allow those younger hip implant recipient patients to be able to go for a longer period of time before they were required to undergo revision surgery. The prior hip implant designs were primarily made from ceramic and polyethylene, and while these materials exhibited a reasonable success rate, they simply did not last long enough, with a typical length of time before revision surgery being approximately 8-10 years. The all-metal hip implants were expected to last almost double that amount of time, making them an exciting, innovative new development in hip implants. Problems soon began to arise with the metal-on-metal hip implants, with several models being recalled due to the risk of metallosis.

Each day in the United States hundreds of people enter hospitals to undergo surgical procedures. Replacement hip surgery has become much more common among older Americans who want to continue to live an active lifestyle. In fact, there are over 400,000 hip replacement surgeries performed every year. Hip implants made their first appearance in the 1970’s, and these implants were made of a combination of materials, including plastics, ceramics and metals. The metal-on-metal hip implants were created in the hopes of giving patients more durability and years of wear from their hip implant.

HOUSTON, TX – A growing number of reports of problems with the all-metal version of the DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant have been received, bringing the total number of complaints made to the FDA in 2011 to over 1,200. This number compares to only a few less than that for the DePuy ASR version of the hip implant device during the same time period. Many personal injury lawsuits relating to the Pinnacle implant are now pending in a Texas federal court under a multidistrict