Stryker Trident Recall: Hip Replacement Lawsuits

Harvey Kirk

By Harvey Kirk
Posted February 23, 2008

ADD YOUR COMMENTS 21

Last month, a Stryker Trident recall was issued for certain hip implant components.  The recall came after months of production problems which have plagued the medical device manufacturer.  Problems with Stryker Trident hip implant parts were discovered following inspections of two different manufacturing plants. The FDA has issued two different warning letters to Stryker Corp. regarding manufacturing problems and poor quality controls which could have resulted in defective Trident hip replacement parts being sold nationwide.

>>INFORMATION: Stryker Trident Problems

The lawyers at Saiontz & Kirk, P.A. are reviewing potential lawsuits on behalf of individuals who suffered an injury as a result of a defective Stryker Trident Hip replacement part. The manufacturer has been aware of potential defects for some time, and failed to take actions which could have prevented serious and permanent injuries for consumers.

TIMELINE OF STRYKER TRIDENT HIP REPLACEMENT PROBLEMS

2005 – 2007:

Stryker Corp receives an unusually high number of complaints regarding problems with the Trident hip replacement parts, resulting in increased scrutiny from the FDA at their manufacturing facilities in New Jersey and Ireland. Reports of hip replacement problems included users who experienced pain, discomfort, improper wear of the joint implants and a squeaking sound coming from the implant.

March 2007:

Following an inspection of both the Cork, Ireland and Mahway, New Jersey plants, the FDA issued an official warning to Stryker regarding the quality levels at the Ireland facility. The letter indicated that Stryker failed to fix problematic products and known risks. The FDA indicated that this may have been a main causative factor in the problems surrounding the Stryker Trident hip implant problems.

November 2007:

The FDA issues a letter to Stryker regarding problems at the New Jersey plant. The FDA found a number of production issues, including the presence of staph infection causing bacteria and other quality problems. The FDA also indicated that Stryker failed to adequately address reports of problems received between January 2005 and April 2007.

January 22, 2008:

A nationwide Striker Trident recall wasa issued for the Trident Acetabular Cup System and Trident Hemispherical Cup System. Both products, which are used in the socket portion of hip replacements, deviated from internal manufacturing specifications.

STRYKER TRIDENT HIP IMPLANT LAWYERS

If you, a friend or family member have experienced pain, difficulty walking or fractures which could have been caused by a defective Stryker Trident Hip Replacement part, request a free consultation and claim evaluation.

21 Comments • Add Your Comments

  • Kathy says:

    Stryker trident hip cup used in total hip replacement at Cleveland Clinic in April 2008, Hip dislocated in July 2008 resulting in 4 day hospital stay and 8 weeks of body brace. After much physical therapy, hip still shifts when bending and rising from seated position. Pain is daily.

    Posted on July 8, 2009 at 10:17 am

  • kninminn says:

    Hip dislocations are not caused by defective implants. The implant is like a mortar and pestle being held in place by a big rubber band (the thigh and butt muscles like iliopsoas, gluteus and adductors). If the “rubber band” is loose the pestle can slip out of the mortar. Dislocations can cause damage to an implant, but the implant did not cause the dislocation.

    Posted on November 30, 2009 at 2:55 pm

  • GREGORY says:

    I HAD BOTH HIPS REPLACED IN 2003 AND HAVE SUFFERED PAIN FOR THE LAST 7 YEARS. IT HURTS WHEN I WALK, WHEN I SIT, WHEN I LAY. SOMETIMES IT’S HARD TO STAND UP BECAUSE MY HIP LOCKS. THE HIP PAIN THAT I HAD BEFORE THE REPLACEMENT IS NOT ONLY STILL THERE BUT IT’S WORSE NOW THEN EVER. AND LEAVES ME WONDERING WHY DID I HAVE THE OPERATION. AND IF I DO A LOT OF STANDING OF WALKING THERE IS HELL TO PAY FOR THE NEXT 3 OR 4 DAYS, THAT INCLUDING LONG AND PAINFUL SLEEPLESS NIGHTS THAT PAIN MED’S DO’NT HELP. DOCTORS TAKE X RAYS AND SAY THEY LOOK GREAT BUT I SAY IT HURTS LIKE HELL.

    Posted on September 22, 2010 at 4:09 pm

  • tommy says:

    I received a total hip replacement in 2003 and it was the worst decision i’ve made in my life. the pain and discomfort are unbearable at times, but i have been to several doctors about the pain and have had alot of test done and they can’t find a problem. one commented that it was probably a bad implant. In my opinion, he got that one correct because i never had pain and immobility like this before the implant. there has to be help for me somewhere.

    Posted on December 30, 2010 at 8:34 pm

  • Janet says:

    I had a stryker hip transplant titanium with a cermic top in Jan. of 2006. I have always had pain but my doctor told me before surgery that SOME PEOPLE WILL HAVE PAIN AFTERWARDS, SOME DO SOME DON’T. WELL, I DO. Now I have the squeeky and what sounds like and feels like rubber bands moving. It makes a loud sound because my customers can hear it and so did my doctor.He thought for a minute and then said it would like if you would “rub you wet finger over a crystal glass edge and it makes a sound. That is what he said my sounds were. HUMMM now that I have been in this web site I think NOT. I have been in pain since the first week and he said that everything was fine in the xray. I know exactly what these people are saying that their problem s are. I am having the same thing. I have been to 5 different PhysicalTherapist and the last one is the one who thinks that there is something wrong and that I am having trouble with my hip. HUMM he might be right. So I just might have to get a 2nd opinion. But do I want to have this done again and be in the same mess or worse…. I do not want to go thru the rest of my life with squeeks and sounds of rubber bands. Granted I am not young but I still like to garden and work outside and this I can not do with out a lot of pain.

    Posted on January 10, 2011 at 4:41 pm

  • Christianne says:

    My mother had the stryker hip implant done a number of years ago. She has been complaining of a burning sensation and it feels like her hip is always out of joint. She also mentions that the implant feels too big.
    She has been complaining of the pain to her orthopedic doctors and they treat her like she is crazy and everything “looks good on the xrays”

    Posted on January 12, 2011 at 12:46 am

  • Mike says:

    I got a THR in 05 and have been in pain since. I have a recalled one, although I was told before surgery that I would have a titanium one… got a ceramic one. Doc never told me, I had to get records myself years later to find out. That sucked. I have also had mine x rayed several times and am told “x rays look ok”. I have read where cases that were also told “x rays look ok” and revision surgery is done and it was all screwed up in there. My last x ray guy said… I have x rayed thousands of these… “if it hurts something is wrong””it is not suppose to hurt””X ray looks ok to me”. Question: How can a standard old school x ray see thru bone? metal? ceramic? to see it something is not fitting right in there? Answer… it can not see thru those materials. So, when an x ray comes back “looks ok” remember all this. I have also read where many of these companies paid doctors kick backs. All this is abailable on the internet.. it is not news. Really makes me sad and makes me not know what to do on my recalled hip issue. Question: Are new kick backs waiting on doctors who will tell patients with defective hips everything is ok ? Most every day, I find new stories and legal entries on these companies which certainly does not cause me to have any faith in them.

    Posted on July 15, 2011 at 7:34 pm

  • Sharon says:

    hi guys your scaring the hell out of me , im getting a stryker implant on fri sept 2 , 2011 he did say he was using the ceramic with the titanium , some how im thinking not ….. dont wanna walk around playing a tune or in more pain than im in now ,,,,,, wow help … have they corrected these problems at all …… there are other stryker hips bessides trident ones that have been recalled …….

    Posted on September 1, 2011 at 12:22 am

  • Dorothy says:

    Had both of my hips replaced – first one in September 2008 and second one, May 2009. Had the ceramic/titanium Stryker implants. Have not had any problem until recently. Right hip is great but the left hip and thigh burn really bad at times. It also seems to stiffen up when I sit too long. My doctor told me that the burning sensation is my bursa sack….otherwise known as bursitis! Guess it could be because it is not a continuous pain. I trusted my doctor when I had my hips replaced…..still trust him….and I pray I will not have problems.

    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 12:30 pm

  • Richard says:

    Have they fixed the problems with Stryker? I am scheduling a hip replacement in May with a titanium and ceramic implant.

    Posted on April 12, 2012 at 3:20 pm

  • Jimmy says:

    I had both hips replaced in 2006, six months apart. My doctor inplanted the Stryker Trident Hemispherical Acetaular shells HA Solid BK. He also used the Citation TMZF HA Stems. I too have had much problems with both hips. They burn when I walk, they click, they feel like they are coming out of their sockets (which is very painful). They cause me to fall sometime also. My nights are also very painful, my thighs go into severe spasms and I take meds for the spasms. I finally found out that if your Chromium and Cobalt levels are elevated you have a problem with the implants. Your Cobalt level should be no more than .019, mine is 80.5 (24hr urine sample). I’m waiting to see my doctor. Please have you blood checked for heavy metals.

    Posted on November 24, 2012 at 10:41 pm

  • Jimmy says:

    I went to Phoenix, Az for my appointment with my hip surgeon. Before I could fill out all of the typical paper work a x-ray technician called me for the usual hip x-rays. They put me in a room and was told the surgeon will be in in a minute or two. Another doctor (intern) came in with the x-ray and said that everything looked good. I asked him why was my cobalt level was so high? I also showed him the recall print outs from the FDA of my hip models. He left to go and talk to the surgeon who did the surguery and came back and said that the surgeon said that they where just memos form Stryker; they did not mean anything. He also said that my cobalt posioning was from my Titanium rods in my back. I talked to my back sugeon on this matter and he said no cobalt are in the rods and there was nothing they could do to help me. There is some reason they wanted me in and out so quick and I’m looking for the answer. I encourge every one who reads this who has had hip implants to go and have a plasma and urine test for chromium and cobalt.

    Posted on December 10, 2012 at 6:41 pm

  • Joseph says:

    I HAD A STRYKER TIDENT HIP IMPLANT MARCH 2005. HAD PROBLEMS REVISION WAS DONE OCTOBER 2013 SURGERY WAS NOT COMPLETED 100% BECAUSE DOCTOR FOUND GRAYISH FLUID SUSPECTING SERIOUS INFECTION. SPACER WAS IMPLANTED WITH ANTIBIOTIC ON IT. REVISION WAS FINALLY COMPLETED IN JANUARY 2014. I HAVE HAD PROBLEMS SINCE WITH RASHES AND SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS. HAVING BLOOD WORK DONE NEXT WEEK FOR KIDNEYS LIVER AND EVEN CANCER.

    Posted on August 29, 2014 at 3:10 pm

  • Roy says:

    So why haven’t we seen any settlements from Stryker? I have a Trident Recall hip replacement in my and I am sick. I can barely walk and I am in pain constantly. I have contacted dozens of lawyers and I’m tired of it. Lip service and “sorry statute of limitations.” Well there is no limitation on my daily pain and suffering. I cant work , I have no money and no health insurance anymore. Obamacare? Forget it. My Hip has dislocated 4 times since 2005 and when I was doing nothing. Last time I sat in a hospital bed in Anaheim for 4 days before they did anything. If I had a gun, I would have killed myself. Well good luck to everyone suffering , I wish you peace in heaven….

    Posted on September 27, 2014 at 3:56 am

  • Faith says:

    I am wondering what you found out regarding your health and the hip replacement. My mom had a replacement and has since died after suffering for a very long year. She ended up having Staph as well as the wrong implant. I would like to hear what your final diagnosis was.
    Thanks!

    Posted on March 11, 2015 at 4:11 pm

  • Greg says:

    I had a stryker trident hip installed in me Dec 3, 2013. Several months after my surgery my leg & hip started swelling up till the adema spread to my other leg. My primary care physician diagonised staph and I was put on a strong drip antibiotic for 45 days. After the 45 days I was still in pain, I had no energy, I still had adema, all of my joints acked especially my wrists. I noticed my lymph nodes were swollen on the side of my surgery. I started a quest to find out the problem. Long story short…after my primary phisician, my nephrologst, two Hematologist and two orthopedic surgeons diagnosed me with amyloidosis which included all of the symptoms I was experiencing & more. I have reactionsry amyloidosis caused by a contaimated strker trident hip put into my body. Attorney after attorney turned my case down because I was not the easy recall trident metal on metal. Most attorneys never heard of amyloidosis. After all of the pain & suffering i’m going thru why in hell has no attorney told me about the 2007 trident recall, of which I told them about, but they were not interested. Now after digging further I find out that the FDA did a mass recall on the striker trident hip manufactured in a faculity in Ireland for contamated parts with staph!!!!! A light bulb went off. A doctor at a hospital put a recalled contaminated stryker trydent hip inside me, not only giving me a life threatning staph infection but the contamated hip gave me reactionary amyloidosis which is non cureable and life threatning. The entire Trident line of hips should be recallecd, but I guess they are the golden egg for stryker….but at what cost to humsn pain and suffering,

    Posted on March 24, 2015 at 12:03 am

  • purplerain says:

    Are they recall implants did in 2006 by stryker this product was defected also.

    Posted on May 15, 2015 at 4:55 am

  • Ash says:

    Has anyone found an attorney that is handling current trident cases?

    Posted on October 7, 2015 at 8:14 am

  • Ellizabeth says:

    I had a Stryker Trident PSL-52 E with a 28/48/42E Insert and an MDM Liner with a ceramic on highly crosslinked polyethylene with modular dual mobility implanted in August 2013. I now have sever bone degeneration around the implant and have been walking on crutches for over a year because I can not put any weight on my left foot (side I had the implant on). The pain is Incredible. I had a doctor tell me it was sciatica but I have had two er doctors (after erays and cat scans) tell me I need a revision of the hip because of the severe bone degeneration. I now have no insurance and no one will do the surgery. Do I have a case? Can you help me?

    Posted on August 2, 2016 at 9:44 am

  • Bryan says:

    I had a complete hip replacement in 2005 using a Stryker ceramic and have had pain ever since!

    Posted on October 3, 2017 at 1:38 pm

  • L. says:

    It saddens me beyond my daily pain to read of so many who are suffering due to the implants they counted on to make life better. I too, have endured an incredible amount of suffering do to bilateral hip replacements: this is a brief overview of a very involved and decades old torture I have lived with:

    In 1993, at the age of 34, I could no longer walk on my left leg: it was riddled and disintegrated with arthritis. I had to petition the hospital to allow the doctors to replace the hip joint totally due to me age – they felt me too young. The surgery was a DISASTER because the hip “popped out” 6 times over the course of the five months following that surgery. Needless to say, we opted to go back in and see what the trouble was. In 1994, the doctor replaced the components he could with other parts. For the next 8 years, I walked but ALWAYS in pain; I figured that is just how it is when you have your bones cut out and metal punched in. At the 8 year mark, I could not deal with the excruciating pain any longer so was seen by another orthopedic surgeon.
    After x-raying the hip, he found my pelvic bone has been being “eaten away” (as he stated it) due to the first prosthetic parts being “placed at a wrong angle”.

    In 2002, my left hip was again opened up and redone with a bit of improvement but always still causing me grief, especially at night after a long day – I had young children then so was required to be as active as possible. At the 6 month check up the ortho surgeon did an xray of both hips for comparison sake and found the right hip looked like it had been enduring too much of the pressure (due to the left hip not serving me proper) and he suggested we replace it too. Life was extremely difficult with the pain in one hip but now, it was in both hips and often times, I was relegated to stay in bed or on the couch: no way for a mother to be when her son’s want her to through the football with them. So, in 2003 we opted to replace the right hip as well.

    In 2009, I had a fall leaving work and subsequently had to have the right hip redone. In the left hip I have a Zimmer and in the right hip I have a Trident; BOTH hips hurt me to this day and cause me to suffer a lack of energy, zest, and accomplishment. I feel it is absolutely WRONG to have any “statute of limitations” on such a life-changing device/implant and feel laws need to change. Being a person who does not sue, I never sought retributions but God knows I deserve them and so do all those people who have suffered this life-changing event: replaced hips are nothing to take lightly and if they are causing great suffering, then the people who endure it should be compensated by the big mega-dollar corporations who make these parts no matter how long they have been in the body or how old. The STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS LAWS CONCERNING THESE HIP REPLACEMENT COMPONENTS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO KEEP US FROM GAINING SOME LEVEL OF COMPENSATION FOR HAVING BEEN USED AS GINNY PIGS FOR BIG PHARMA.

    At this stage of the “game” I will need further revision surgeries as I am outliving these hip replacement components. Best of luck to all who are suffering with this dilemma – I hope the laws of “statute of limitations” change and change soon.

    Posted on April 6, 2019 at 3:16 pm

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