Because of the medical scandal that left several patients
poisoned and seriously disabled, there may be changes soon in the way medical
devices are approved for use in Australia, medical experts say. In the United
States, the faulty articular surface replacement (ASR) hip made and marketed by
DePuy Orthopaedics, a subsidiary of the Johnson & Johnson healthcare
empire, had been recalled in 2010 due to several complaints of being defective
and against which patients were seekingcompensation for the faulty medical products they had received.
DePuy issued worldwide recall and voluntarily withdrew it
from Australia in 2009, but not before 93,000 patients worldwide, 5,500 of them
Australians, had been implanted with the faulty hip and were among the 8,000
patients who filed a lawsuit against DePuy wherein several question been if
there has been any out of court settlement for the asr hip.
Those people who usually undergo hip replacement are those
who cannot bear anymore the hip pain caused by osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis is an age-related “wear and tear” type of
arthritis. Like other chronic conditions, it has no single, specific cause.
Instead, there are several factors involved in the disease, including heredity
and lifestyle. It usually occurs in people 50 years of age and older and often
in individuals with a family history of arthritis.
A person suffering from osteoarthritis may vary, depending on
which joint are affected and how seriously they are afflicted. The most common
indications are experiencing stiffness, particularly, first thing in the
morning or after resting, and pain. The most commonly affected joints are the
lower back, feet and knees. When those joints are affected, the person may have
difficulty in doing simple tasks such as walking, climbing stairs and lifting
objects.
There are calls for an inquiry into the regulation of
Australia's $4 billion medical devices industry following the recall of the
faulty hip that left hundreds of Australians in unbearable pain. An increasing
number of patients who had the hip implanted are having to undergo painful and
complex revision surgery to remove the faulty hip.
Many, in addition, have experienced severe illness away from
the hip, which some doctors and medical researchers attribute to metal
poisoning from the joint.
Hundreds of Australians who had the faulty hip implanted are
now joining class actions against DePuy Orthopaedics and Johnson & Johnson.
For more information, check The DePuy Hip Recall Center.
URL REFERENCES:
abc.net.au/news/2011-05-16/
arthritistoday.org/conditions/
