DePuy ASR Recall

In August 2010, more than six years after the devices were first introduced to the market, DePuy Orthopaedics issued a DePuy ASR recall of the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System due to a shockingly high failure rate.

Reasons Behind the DePuy ASR Recall

The DePuy ASR recall was announced in the U.S. after an investigative report by the National Joint Registry (NJR) of England and Wales found that two of the DePuy ASR (Articular Surface Replacement) devices had a failure rate of 12 to 13 percent after five years. The normal, acceptable failure rate for similar hip devices is 5 to 6 percent after five years.

Impact of the DePuy ASR Recall

It is estimated that the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System have been used in at least 93,000 hip replacement surgeries worldwide over the past six or seven years.

The ASR XL Acetabular System was used in thousands of hip operations to replace the entire hip joint with a prosthetic, metal device. The system used a metal acetabular cup which was placed in a patient’s hip socket. A metal femoral ball and stem was then fit into the metal acetabular cup, similar to traditional hip replacement implants.

While the ASR Hip Resurfacing System was not released in the U.S., the device was used thousands of times in other countries worldwide to resurface the head of the femur (leg bone) with a metal prosthesis that fit into a patient’s acetabular cup.