JNJ Warns Doctors to Stop Using Hip Implant

According to a report by Bloomberg, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has alerted doctors outside the United States to stop using the company’s Adept hip implant after a failure rate that was higher than expected. This comes in the wake of ongoing controversy surrounding metal-on-metal hips industry wide. JNJ’s orthopedics unit DePuy Orthopoedics recalled its all-metal ASR XL Acetabular hips in 2010, and just recalled the Adept hips last month. The company’s Pinnacle hip is still on the market, and looks like a sitting duck in light of the general distrust felt of metal hips. All-metal hips have been found to leave metal deposits in patient blood streams and, allegedly, in soft tissue surrounding the ball joints.

A United Kingdom database showed that 12 percent of Adept patients needed revision surgery to fix the implant, which hasn’t been sold since 2011, company officials said in a statement. JNJ sold about 7,500 Adept components in 21 countries outside of the United States between 2004 and 2011, according to Reuters, and data showed an increasingly common device failure rate.

The 2010 recall affected 93,000 ASR units, and JNJ faces 10,000 lawsuits that have just started to enter proceedings. Plaintiffs claim that the implant caused pain, immobilization, infections, bone fractures, and high levels of cobalt and chromium deposits from device wear.

JNJ acquired the Adept implant in 2009 from U.K. device maker Finsbury Orthopaedics Ltd. JNJ company officials said patients who received the Adept devices should be monitored according to local standards of care.

DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. is based in Warsaw, Ind., and was purchased by JNJ in 1998.