Fda Meeting to Discuss The Dangers of Metal - On - Metal implants - New York attorney dan burke

You’ve recently had your hip replaced with a metal-on-metal hip implant and you may have some questions concerning that implant. My name is Dan Burke and I’m a lawyer at Parker Waichman in New York. And I deal with patients who, and plaintiffs who, have had hip implants every day. What is a hip implant? A hip implant is essentially a ball and a socket that replaces your existing joint in your body. The socket, or cup, is implanted into your pelvis and the ball is typically put onto the end of a stem which is implanted into your femur, which is the long bone in your upper thigh, your thigh bone. When the ball and the cup are both made of metal that refers to a metal-on-metal implant. And what’s the problem with metal-on-metal implants? The problem is that when the two surfaces articulate or rub together they release metal debris, or metal ions. And that metal gets into the bloodstream and can cause a whole host of problems. Recently, there was a report in the Bridge Medical Journal indicating that this metal debris can cause a whole host of injuries including metallosis, tissue damage, tissue death, the need for revision surgery, as well as potentially even causing cancer. Just this past week, the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration) convened what’s called an “advisory panel.” An advisory panel is a group of experts that gets together and will discuss a particular product that’s approved by the FDA. This is a meeting of the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Device Advisory Panel and it’s scheduled to take place at the end of June of this year, on June 27th and 28th of this year. And the advisory panel, while it’s not able to actually recall devices or change the labels with respect to devices, they do make recommendations to the FDA which are often followed. We’re hopeful that the FDA will take some action following the advisory committee meeting and either put more stringent regulation on the use of these metal-on-metal hip implants or potential ban their use forever. If you have a metal-on-metal hip implant or any hip implant and you have questions concerning your injuries, give me a call. I deal with these kinds of questions every day and I’m happy to help you out. Again, my name is Dan Burke at Parker Waichman. Thanks for taking the time to listen.