If the Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Head used in your hip replacement fractured, we will investigate, and if we believe it failed due to a defect, represent you. As you are very aware if you have suffered a fracture of a Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Head, the results of the fracture are catastrophic.

We are aware of several series of failures of Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Heads used in hip replacement systems here in the United States. The most well known failure of a series of Ceramic Zirconia Femoral Heads resulted in the 2001 recall by French manufacturer Saint Gobain Ceramiques Avancees Desmarquest (commonly referred to as St. Gobain Desmarquest). In 2001 this manufacturer recalled batches of its Prozyr zirconia ceramic femoral heads. St. Gobain Desmarquest recalled the batches because the femoral heads were fracturing at a higher rate than expected. The femoral head is the ball portion of the hip prosthesis that connects the femoral stem to the pelvis. St. Gobain Desmarquest distributes zirconia and alumina ceramic femoral heads worldwide to most of the orthopedic industry.

The 2001 manufacturer recall applied to nine batches of zirconia ceramic femoral heads manufactured since early 1998. All these potentially defective batches were manufactured after the beginning of 1998 when St. Gobain Desmarquest changed part of its manufacturing process. No metal or alumina femoral heads are involved in the recall.

The U.S. companies that used the St. Gobain Desmarquest zirconia femoral heads were:

• Apex Surgical, LLC
• Biomet, Inc.
• DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. (a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson)
• Encore Orthopedics, Inc.
• Osteoimplant Technology Inc. (OTI)
• Smith & Nephew, Inc.
• Stryker Howmedica Osteonics
• Zimmer, Inc.

The Food and Drug Administration subsequently issued a voluntary recall for these St. Gobain Desmarquest zirconia ceramic femoral heads. In the voluntary recall, the FDA advised that surgeons should not continue to implant artificial hips with zirconia ceramic femoral heads manufactured by St. Gobain Desmarquest between early 1998 and 2001. The FDA recommended that patients who already have these hip implants should contact their surgeons with any questions or concerns. Not all zirconia ceramic femoral heads involved in the 2001 recall are expected to fail, and not all patients will experience a problem; therefore, FDA is not recommending surgery to replace hip implants that have not fractured or are not causing problems.

If you believe that your hip prosthesis failed because of a defective zirconia ceramic femoral head, the lawyers of the Maglio Christopher & Toale Law Firm will be glad to review your medical records to determine whether we feel there are sufficient grounds for us to represent you in pursuing a case against the manufacturer. Click here for our online potential case evaluation form.

Typically in order to review a case, we need the orthopedic surgeon's office chart, the operative reports for the original joint replacement surgery and the revision surgery, and the device record for the original surgery from the hospital chart (this shows the product and lot numbers of the components of the device). We also like to have the device. Therefore, it is essential that you get possession of the device as soon as it is removed. It may still be possible to do the case with no device, but it is always better to have the device.