On November 2, 2018, Stryker Corporation announced a settlement resolving lawsuits in New Jersey state court and Massachusetts federal court involving recalled and unrecalled components of its LFIT Cobalt Chromium V40 Femoral Heads used in hip replacement. The settlement amounts are confidential but will be based on the level of harm suffered by plaintiffs and the components that had to be removed. Litigation in 2014, involving similar claims of harm caused by Stryker Rejuvenate resulted in more than $1 billion in compensation to plaintiffs.
The Claims Against Stryker’s LFIT
In the current lawsuits, plaintiffs claim that the defective LFIT hip replacement parts contained cobalt and titanium and with the constant wear and tear between the dissimilar materials corrosion and fretting occurred causing toxic metal particles to be released into the surround tissues resulting in harm including:
- Inflammation
- Local tissue reaction
- Device dislocation
- Bone fractures around device components
- The need for revision surgery
The Settlement
The settlement plan is for cases in the Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) 2768 in Massachusetts and consolidated cases in the Multi-County Litigation (MCL) 624 in New Jersey and/or other jurisdictions. It is not intended to resolve all filed claims. Devices eligible for the settlement are both recalled and unrecalled CoCr V40 femoral heads and compatible stem system configurations including:
- Accolade TMZF
- Accolade 2
- Citation
- Meridian
- Rejuvenate
The settlement is private and confidential, meaning that the details and amounts paid to victims of the defective LFITs will not be announced.
If you believe that you have been harmed by a defective hip replacement part or any defective medical device, please talk to an experienced defective medical device attorney right away to learn more about your rights.
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