Hip implant suffers mass failure rate

An artificial hip implanted in more than 1,700 patients in the 1990s has failed in three out of four cases in some hospitals, causing widespread suffering and leaving the manufacturer facing a potential bill for millions of pounds.

The Elite Hylamer hip, manufactured by DuPuy International, was withdrawn in 1999 after surgeons noticed excessive wear and loosening of the joint. Some patients were warned that they faced catastrophic failure of the hip requiring emergency surgery if they did not have the operation redone before serious problems arose.

In some groups of patients more than 75 per cent have required revision operations to replace the defective hip. In Plymouth, where the orthopaedic surgeon Geoff Anderson was among the first to raise the alarm, 27 patients received Hylamer hips between 1995 and 1999 and 20 have since had surgery to replace them.

Jonathan Lettin, the president of DePuy International in Europe, a Johnson & Johnson company, said it had agreed to pay for all checks on patients and for any revision where an independent panel of surgeons agreed the Hylamer component had failed.