Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Head Fracture
If the Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Head used in your hip replacement fractured, we will investigate, and if we believe it failed due to a defect, represent you. As you are very aware if you have suffered a fracture of a Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Head, the results of the fracture are catastrophic.
We are aware of several series of failures of Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Heads used in hip replacement systems here in the United States. The most well known failure of a series of Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Heads resulted in the 2001 recall by French manufacturer Saint Gobain Ceramiques Avancees Desmarquest (commonly referred to as St. Gobain Desmarquest). In 2001 this manufacturer recalled batches of its Prozyr zirconia ceramic femoral heads. St. Gobain Desmarquest recalled the batches because the femoral heads were fracturing at a higher rate than expected. The femoral head is the ball portion of the hip prosthesis that connects the femoral stem to the pelvis. Since then we have represented patients with failures of several other series of Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Heads.
Signs That Your Zirconia Ceramic Femoral Head Has Fractured
Fracture of zirconia ceramic femoral heads may be signaled by a sudden pain in the implanted hip joint, sometimes preceded by an audible "pop" from the hip just before the onset of pain. If a zirconia ceramic femoral head fractures, at a minimum emergent surgery to replace it will be necessary. Once zirconia ceramic femoral heads have been implanted, no tests exist that can predict which patients will experience failure of their hip implants because of defective zirconia ceramic femoral heads.
If you believe that your hip prosthesis failed because of a defective zirconia ceramic femoral head, the lawyers of the Maglio Christopher Toale & Pitts Law Firm will be glad to review your medical records to determine whether we feel there are sufficient grounds for us to represent you in pursuing a case against the manufacturer. Click here for our online potential case evaluation form.
Typically in order to review a case, we need the orthopedic surgeon's office chart, the operative reports for the original joint replacement surgery and the revision surgery, and the device record for the original surgery from the hospital chart (this shows the product and lot numbers of the components of the device). We also like to have the device. Therefore, it is essential that you get possession of the device as soon as it is removed. It may still be possible to do the case with no device, but it is always better to have the device.
