Stryker Suits Consolidated in Minnesota

The purpose of multidistrict litigation is to consolidate complex legal cases that share a similar legal issues and common questions of fact. The product liability lawsuits filed naming Stryker over its Rejuvenate hip and the ABG II Hip Stem have been consolidated in federal court in Minnesota.

The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) ordered 41 lawsuits against the Rejuvenate and ABG II to be consolidated into the federal court so the discovery process can begin. Last month MDL No. 2441 was officially mandated to handle the cases, estimated to be in the thousands. The Honorable Judge Donavan W. Frank will oversee the cases. Judge Frank is reported to be well versed in complex multidistrict litigation.

Stryker had requested that the litigation be limited to the Rejuvenate Total Hip System and not involve the ABG II devices. That request was denied by the JPML in its transfer order.

Consolidation allows consistent rulings and presumably moves cases through the courts more efficiently. New Jersey has consolidated there in MultiCounty Litigation in Bergen County Superior Court where it’s called the Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Stem and ABG II Modular Hip Stem Litigation, No. 296.

Stryker decided to design its implant with dissimilar metals because chromium and cobalt were thought to resist corrosion. That turned out not to be true especially in the head-neck taper where the femoral head (cobalt-chromium) comes in contact with the neck (titanium or cobalt-chromium).

The Stryker Rejuvenate was not thought to create metallosis, or metal ions in the blood because the device incorporates ceramics and doesn’t have a metal-on-metal and socket design, but plaintiffs share the same complications resulting from their metal-on-metal implant – necrosis or death of tissue, bone and muscle, metallosis, an elevation in the cobalt and/or chromium levels in serum, pseudotumors, accumulation of fluids, pain in the back, leg, difficulty walking and the need for additional revision surgeries.

Unlike a metal ball and socket, the Rejuvenate stem is driven deeply into the thigh bone and was never intended to be removed. When a failure occurs at the metal stem and neck junction, the stem must be removed. Often the femur breaks in the process in that the process is like trying to remove rebar from concrete.

Searcy Denney encourages Rejuvenate and ABG II implant patients to carefully choose a revision surgeon, one who has done at least dozens of these surgeries.