Injuries for Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacements
A metal-on-metal hip replacement is a metal socket and a metal ball that are intended to provide a patient greater flexibility and range of motion. Eventually, the two metal parts rub against each other and can release metal ions in the body, causing an inflammatory response in the hips which can result in metallosis, hip pain, hip popping, and unfortunately, a revision surgery.
No two metal-on-metal hip replacement are the same, and therefore, the side effects and resulting cases are each different as well. If a person was aware of the risks associated with metal-on-metal hip replacement surgery, it depends on what they knew, when they knew it, and what type of hip replacement they have. For this reason, Raleigh metal hip replacement lawyer can play a vital role in helping individuals determine if they have a case, and if they do, then helping guide them through the claim process.
Expected Side Effects or Complications
Prior to their hip replacement surgery, a person should have been warned of the possible injuries that could occur after a metal-on-metal hip replacement.
Products, like these hip replacements, with failure rates so high should never have been brought to market. People were never advised that these metal-on-metal component parts could rub together and cause such major damages. These injuries are not expected side effects or complications of hip replacement surgery, and therefore, individuals who have experienced these injuries are eligible to receive compensation to help with medical bills and day-to-day life.
Progression of Issues
Issues with the metal-on-metal hip replacement may start with a little bit of popping or cracking in the hip. It may progress to pain when walking distances, and eventually, there may be more general pain, pain every single day, walking with a limp, and not being able to walk because the pain is so severe. These are some of the common issues that our individuals endure when their hip implant is failing.
Injuries That Can Result
Some symptoms with a hip replacement that may not be working can include popping or clicking in the hips, pain on walking, walking with a limp, and general fatigue or malaise. Injuries include metallosis, extremely elevated cobalt and chromium levels, permanent damage to the hip replacement or to the hip itself. The most serious injury that can result from a metal-on-metal hip replacement, though, is undergoing another revision surgery of the hip.
Proving an Injury
Elevated cobalt and chromium levels shown through a blood test is one way to tell there is a hip implant failure. As the metal components of the hip rub together, the metal can begin to come off of the replacement and into the bloodstream, therefore raising the cobalt and chromium levels in the person’s blood which can have many other consequences.
Retrieving the implant after any surgery is of great importance because it can show the wear of the material. Also, in the operative reports from the revision surgery, sometimes the surgeon will note exactly what they found.
In addition, in some of cases, there is a fluid-filled sac that may explode from all the metal and debris that was broken off from the hip. If that was somehow videotaped by the nursing staff and these are backed by your medical records, that is very compelling evidence the hip replacement is causing the person’s injury.
