No More 'Metal on Metal' Hip Implants?

• Date: March 09, 2010
• Source: admin

Known as ‘metal on metal’ implants, this hip replacement procedure was one of the most admired one and has been opted for by  about one-third of the approximately 250,000 hip replacements performed annually in USA, but result of this replacement has now set off an alarming bell amongst the patients and doctors. Recent researches have shown that this popular mode of hip replacement is causing severe pain, inflammation and death of tissues in the hip joint in some patients. Result of which is another surgery in two or three years to remove the implant.

According to Dr. Nizar Mahomed, an orthopedic surgeon at Toronto Western Hospital and the medical director of the Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis Program, patients who have undergone hip replacements are experiencing problems with metal on metal implants, as it is causing inflammation, pain and loss of mobility and they become forced to have their hip replacements redone in two to five years after their initial replacement surgery. He maintains that “Every hip replacement, regardless of type, will create some particles. But I've seen patients very early after surgery develop ongoing pain and inflammation. Nobody can predict what person will be at risk of developing this reaction".

Source: 

http://www.medindia.net/

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.cbc.ca/