Defective Hip Replacement Implants

Medical negligence and product liability claims here at McCarthy + Co Solicitors LLP are overseen by our head litigation lawyer, John McCarthy. John has acted for many patients affected by defective hip implants, including in the litigation that followed the worldwide recall of the DePuy ASR metal-on-metal system, and he continues to act for patients fitted with implants from manufacturers such as DePuy, Stryker, and Zimmer Biomet.

Arrange a time to speak with John by completing our quick and confidential online form.

How hip implants fail

Modern hip replacements are usually very successful and long-lasting. When an implant fails early, however, it can cause significant pain and disability, and often requires revision surgery to replace it. Common modes of failure include:

• loosening of the implant, often linked to wear over time, causing pain and instability;
• metallosis, where a metal-on-metal implant sheds microscopic metal debris that inflames and destroys the surrounding tissue and bone;
• osteolysis, the loss of bone around the implant;
• dislocation or fracture of the implant, or of the bone around it; and

Where a failure of this kind results from a defect in the implant, rather than from the natural lifespan of the device or the way it was fitted, there may be grounds for a product liability claim against the manufacturer.

The metal-on-metal problem in numbers

For a period in the 2000s, metal-on-metal implants were widely used, before evidence emerged that many were failing far earlier than expected. Implant performance is tracked by national joint registries, and regulators expect a hip implant to have a low failure rate over its lifetime. The figures below show how far certain metal-on-metal devices, including the recalled DePuy ASR, fell short of that standard.

Sources: National Joint Registry 21st Annual Report (2024) and the NICE benchmark it cites; the five-year figures are those behind the 2010 worldwide recall of the DePuy ASR, drawn from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales.

The recall was a significant event in Ireland. According to figures released by the HSE in 2010, around 3,516 ASR implants had been sold here, out of roughly 70,000 hip replacements carried out since the device became available in 2003, and approximately 3,311 Irish patients were later registered as part of the recall process. Worldwide, around 93,000 ASR implants had been used before the recall.

A large analysis of registry data published in The Lancet in 2012 concluded that metal-on-metal stemmed hips failed at high rates compared with other options, and that they should not be implanted, with patients who already had them requiring careful monitoring.

A product liability claim not a negligence claim

Although this page sits within our medical negligence section, a defective hip implant claim is, in most cases, a product liability claim rather than a medical negligence claim. It is brought against the producer of the device, the manufacturer, an own-brander, or the importer into the European Union, under the Liability for Defective Products Act 1991. That regime is strict, which means that if you can show the implant was defective and caused your injury, you do not have to prove that anyone was negligent. Where the implant was also fitted negligently, a medical negligence claim against the surgeon or hospital may run alongside it, and we will advise on every route open to you.

The time limits are different from those in an ordinary claim, and this catches people out. A defective product claim under the 1991 Act must generally be brought within three years of the date you became aware of the injury, the defect, and the producer, rather than the usual two years, and there is a ten-year ‘long-stop’ running from when the product was put into circulation. A revised European Product Liability Directive, due to be in place in Ireland by 9 December 2026, will extend that long-stop to twenty-five years for injuries that are slow to emerge, which is particularly relevant to implants. Because these rules are more generous, but also more complex, than they first appear, it is worth taking advice rather than assuming you are in or out of time.