An analysis of a federal hip implant complaint database by the New York Times indicates that there has been a surge in the number of complaints related to hip implant devices like DePuy’s ASR devices and Zimmer’s Durom cup.
 
The analysis also shows an increase in the number of metal-on-metal hip implant complaints. According to the New York Times analysis, the agency has received about 5,000 complaints related to metal-on-metal implants manufactured by DePuy since January this year alone. The analysis found a total of 7,500 complaints regarding these devices. The analysis also found about 1,500 complaints regarding the Durom cup between 2007 and June 2011.

However, it is difficult to say exactly how many complaints involve all-metal implants, because complaint reports were not filed a standardized manner.
The New York Times analysis comes even as hip implant manufacturers like DePuy, Zimmer and Wright Medical lay the groundwork for studies on the safety of these devices. The Food and Drug Administration ordered these companies to study the safety of hip implants, after a wave of complaints and recalls of defective hip implants. The companies have recently been in touch with health providers like Kaiser Permanente and hospitals that have their own patient registries, to recruit patients for the studies. These companies have already presented their proposed plans for the studies to the Food and Drug Administration, which will decide on the effectiveness of these proposed studies by November.
 
California hip implant recall lawyers would like the studies to recommend systems to measure the amount of metallic ions from these devices that are leaked into the bloodstream, and ways to measure the extent of bone loss from the use of these implants.

The Food and Drug Administration is right to worry about all-metal hip implant devices. The agency believes that these devices are the biggest medical implant-related issue the Food and Drug Administration and California product liability lawyers have faced since Medtronic's cardiac implant device problems a few years ago.