October 4, 2017 — Lawyers in Alabama have filed what is believed to be the 1st lawsuit involving a patient who needed surgery when their DePuy Attune® knee replacement loosened and failed prematurely.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyers in Alabama who allege that the DePuy Attune knee replacement is defective because the tibial baseplate can potentially fail to bond with the patient’s knee bones.
According to lawyers for people who were injured:
“We expect to see increasing lawsuits given the seriousness of the injuries and under-reporting of these injuries associated with the DePuy Attune Knee.”
The lawsuit was filed in civil court in the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama on September 13, 2017.
Lawyers cited a study published in the Journal of Knee Surgery linking the tibial baseplate of the Attune knee implant with an “unusually high rate of early failure” at the implant-cement interface.
The study was published by surgeons who removed Attune knee implants from 15 patients who had pain, swelling, and limited mobility in less than 2 years after having their first knee replacement surgery.
All of the patients had little to no cement bonding the Attune knee implant with their bones. The entire knee was destabilized as a result. Patients with loose knee implants are at risk of infection, nerve damage, broken bones, and they typically require a revision surgery.
The surgeons blamed the implant failures on shallow cut-outs on the underside of the tibial baseplate component of the Attune knee implant. DePuy updated the design of the “Attune S+” knee implant with larger cut-outs on the baseplate, but did not recall the original.
The Schmidt Firm, PLLC has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading plaintiffs' law firms and handles cases in all 50 states. We are very proud of our legal achievements, but equally self-respecting of our firm's reputation for providing personal attention to each and every client we represent.
