Lawsuit Claims Durom Cup Hip Implant Failed to Bond

Each year thousands of Americans undergo hip replacement surgery. In most cases the artificial hip components are implanted and the patient can make full recovery within a few weeks or months, but Victor Barakat’s experience was not like most.

Barakat claims that he suffered excruciating pain for almost three years due to his defective hip prostheses, eventually leading to revision surgery in April of 2009 to remove the prostheses and replace due to its failure to properly bond with the surrounding bone.

Barakat’s total hip replacement was performed using the Durom Cup hip replacement system. The Durom Cup is a metal-on-metal hip replacement, meaning that entire joint, both the ball and the socket, are made from metal, rather than a ceramic-metal or plastic-metal combination seen in many other implant systems. Metal-on-metal implants are most commonly used in younger more athletic patients due to the added strain that may be placed on more active artificial joints.

Barakat has filed a lawsuit agaist the manufacturer of the Duro9m Cup, Zimmer Inc. and Zimmer Holdings Inc.

Barakat argues that the device did not meet specifications and guidelines of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He also claims the defendants used "unconscionable commercial business practices" by concealing material facts about the implant.

Causes of action filed against the manufacturers include failure to warn, design defect, marketing defect, manufacturing defect, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, breach of implied warranty.

In recent months many physicians have begun to move away from using the Durom Cup hip replacment system due to numerous problems experienced with the setting of the cup and the high rate of revision surgeries that have been observed with the Durom Cup system.