Women At Higher Risk of Hip Replacement Failure

A recent research study shows that women are more prone to hip device failure compared to men. Based on the study that involved over 30,000 hip implant patients, women are 30% more likely to develop hip replacement complications that can lead to hip implant failure compared to the male patients. This study was published on the JAMA Internal Medicine website in February 2013. Moreover, the study was sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The findings of the research study may not bode well for the thousands of women who have undergone hip replacement. According to statistics, women make up the majority of all implant patients in the United States who undergo hip replacement due to damage caused by bone-related injuries. It is still not known, however, whether the problem discovered by the research study involves all brands of hip replacement devices or not.

One of the experts who participated in the research study is Dr. Art Sedrakyan, a professor of public health at New York City’s Weill Cornell Medical College. According to him, women have higher hip revision rates compared to men regardless of their shape and size. However, he emphasized that there are no reasons for concern despite the new revelation. He says the overall risk still remains low.

Diana Zuckerman, the chief executive of a nonprofit organization known as the National Research Center for Women & Families, wrote an article in response to this research study. In her article, she mentions that additional research studies regarding the subject must be conducted in order to find out exactly why women are more prone to hip failure than men. According to her, further research may “save billions of dollars" and prevent patients from suffering the discomfort and pain of hip revision procedures.

All in all, Dr. Sedrakyan and his team of researchers collected data from 35,140 hip replacement procedures at 46 medical institutions in the Kaiser Permanente health system. Three years after the start of his research study, 2.3% of the female implant patients and 1.9% of the male implant patients had undergone hip revision surgery due to problems, which includes infection, bone fractures, loosening of the implant, and device instability.

Over the past few years, reports of hip implant failure have become more widespread. Based on reports, patients with metal-on-metal hip devices are particularly vulnerable to complications that can lead to implant failure. Many of these patients have suffered severe injuries, such as metallosis, metal toxicity, tissue necrosis, and muscle damage. This has triggered multiple lawsuits against the manufacturers of metal-on-metal hip devices, including DePuy Orthopaedics, Stryker Orthopaedics, and Smith & Nephew. Further information on these hip replacement lawsuits may be located on personal injury law firm sites, including the Rottenstein Law Group's rotlaw.com.