Hip pain is a general condition where the person experiences pain in or originating from the hip. Hip pain may be an isolated condition and could indicate something wrong with the person’s hips or hip joint. However, hip pain can be connected to other conditions.
Hip pain may be an indication of other medical conditions, such as:
Hip pain can result from direct injury or trauma to the hip region, such as a car accident injury. Such pain also commonly results from slip and fall cases.
What Are Some Remedies or Treatments for Hip Pain?
Hip pain may involve many treatment methods, including:
- Pain medication
- Hip surgery (implants or replacement of joints)
- Therapy and rehabilitation to strengthen the hip area
Some hip treatments may involve a combination of approaches. Patients may require rehabilitation after a surgical procedure.
Can I Recover Damages from Hip Pain Claims?
Hip pain can often be included in a legal proceeding, which results in the plaintiff obtaining damages for losses. Hip pain can often result from legal claims such as:
- Car accident injuries
- Sports injuries
- Surgical malpractice
- Job-related work injuries
- Slip and fall claims
Hip pain or hip damage can often be included in a plaintiff’s overall damages award. Some states may place limits on pain and suffering aspects of an injury lawsuit. Hip pain can sometimes be included under workers’ compensation or insurance packages.
What Are Hip Replacement Lawsuits?
In hip replacement lawsuits, people claim they suffered infection, dislocation, loosening, or a type of metal poisoning called metallosis after receiving a defectively designed or poorly tested artificial hip. Some injuries are so severe that people need surgery to replace faulty hip implants.
Hip replacements usually improve the quality of life for people suffering from severe joint damage or fractures, but people have sued device manufacturers because their faulty hip implants caused serious complications.
Several hip replacement models have led to thousands of lawsuits. Many hip replacement models have been combined into mass litigations. Almost 30,000 lawsuits have been filed as part of these litigations in recent years. Hip implant manufacturers have paid more than $6.5 billion in the past decade to settle lawsuits over defective devices in the past decade.
Surgery to Replace Defective Hip Implants
People who sue hip implant makers often claim poorly tested or poorly manufactured implants caused complications. In many cases, the complications are so severe that people need surgery to replace the defective medical device.
Injuries claimed in hip replacement lawsuits may include:
- Device dislocation
- Device loosening
- Metallosis or other metal poisonings
- Pain
- Revision surgery
Even if a faulty hip implant was never recalled, you may still be able to file a lawsuit. Use LegalMatch to find a products liability lawyer who specializes in medical device lawsuits. An experienced lawyer can explain your legal options if you’ve had complications from an artificial hip.
What are Metal-on-Metal Hip Complications?
Any hip replacement may lead to hip pain, but metal-on-metal implants have caused an influx of hip replacement lawsuits in recent years. Metal-on-metal artificial hips use a metal ball mounted on the top of the thigh bone that rotates in a metal cup or socket mounted in the hipbone.
Although promoted as more durable and longer-lasting than conventional implants, metal-on-metal models have proven to fail sooner than expected and come with a complication called metallosis.
Metallosis is a type of metal poisoning caused when metal components rub together and release microscopic particles in the body. The microscopic particles can cause tissue damage and lead to the artificial hip loosening.
What is a Tritanium Acetabular Shell Lawsuit?
Many law firms around the country are accepting new cases involving injuries blamed on Stryker Corporation’s Tritanium Acetabular Shells. The medical device firm announced a settlement over its LFIT Cobalt Chromium V40 Femoral Heads in November 2018. The company previously settled lawsuits over its Rejuvenate Modular-Neck Hip Stem and ABG II Modular-Neck Hip Stem during agreements that started in 2014.
What is Tritanium Acetabular Shell Loosening?
Tritanium is a titanium-based product that Stryker developed and uses as a brand name for several medical devices. The shells, or cups, replace the socket portion of the hip joint. Bone is supposed to grow into and around the shell and hold it in place. However, some people claim their bones never grew around the shell, and their artificial hips came loose.
A study published in 2018 in the journal Arthroplasty Today described five patients at a single hospital whose Tritanium shells loosened. All of the patients experienced hip pain. The researchers believed the problem was likely due to a manufacturing defect.
Another study published in 2018 also found problems with Tritanium acetabular used in total hip replacements. The researchers X-rayed 121 hip replacements in 94 patients. A third of the hips showed signs of hip pain associated with eventual loosening.
What are LFIT V40 Lawsuits?
In November 2018, Stryker announced it had reached a confidential settlement to resolve many of its LFIT Cobalt Chromium V40 Femoral Head lawsuits in state and federal court.
More than 660 lawsuits have been pending in a Massachusetts federal court in recent years. Additional state-filed lawsuits piled up in New Jersey.
The lawsuits claim patients needed revision surgery to replace the femoral heads because the devices caused hip pain, difficulty walking, and tissue and muscle damage. In some cases, patients complained that the femoral head had separated. Stryker recalled 42,519 LFIT V40 Femoral Heads after reports that the part had loosened. The LFIT V40 was used in several different Stryker hip replacement models. The settlement reached covered people who had Stryker’s Accolade TMZF, Accolade 2, Citation, Meridian, and Rejuvenate models of hip replacements.
Should I Hire a Lawyer for Help with Hip Pain Issues?
In the last decade, Stryker paid $1.4 billion in the last decade to settle lawsuits over a pair of its metal-on-metal hip replacements.
Most hip implants have a single part that attaches to the thigh bone. The models involved in many settlements had a two-piece stem and featured interchangeable parts that fit into the ball. The different sizes and angles of these parts let surgeons customize fits to different patients.
But lawsuits claimed the friction between the parts released metal ions into the people fitted with them. The microscopic debris was blamed for metallosis and other complications.
Hip pain lawsuits can involve complex legal and medical issues. You may need to hire a qualified personal injury lawyer if you need help with hip pain or other medical issues. An experienced attorney can provide you with legal guidance and advice for your issue. If you need to attend any court proceedings, your lawyer can represent you during those meetings.
Hip pain is a debilitating condition that impacts you and your loved ones. Hip pain causes you to lose your enjoyment of life and detracts from your ability to participate in daily activities. Don’t settle for hip pain. If you have hip pain that was caused by an event or condition that wasn’t your fault, reach out to a lawyer in your area today to get the settlement you deserve.
