The Legal Examiner Affiliate Network The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner search instagram avvo phone envelope checkmark mail-reply spinner error close The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner
Skip to main content

Experts in England found “unequivocal evidence” of high failure rates in metal-on-metal hip implants leading them to call for a complete ban of such implants. In a study published today in the Lancet, experts reported a 6.2% revision rate after five years on data collected from 400,000 hip implants.

This warning is a second blow this month to metal-on-metal hip implants – two weeks ago the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued new guidance on the implants, which warned that almost 50,000 patients in the UK will need annual blood or MRI checks as a result of their implants.

The most recent Lancet study explains that the increase in failure rate appears to be related to the size of the implant – comparing revision rates for ceramic implants of 2.3% and metal-on-plastic implants of 1.7%.

This study further concluded that women, in particular, with metal-on-metal implants should be carefully monitored since their failure rates were particularly high – four times greater than failure with other implants.

Comments for this article are closed.