Doctors Offer Caution Regarding Popular Artificial Hip

A once popular type of artificial hip should be avoided for hip replacements because the device has been linked to severe tissue and bone damage, according to some orthopedic surgeons. The "metal on metal" hip implants, used in about 80,000 hip replacements every year, were widely because they were believed to be more durable than other implant types. Studies in recent years indicate that in some cases the devices can quickly begin to wear, generating high volumes of metallic debris that is absorbed into a patient's body. That situation can touch off inflammatory reactions that cause pain in the groin, death of tissue in the hip joint and loss of surrounding bone.

Devices supposed to last 15 years may need to be replaced in two years or less, some doctors have said. Limited studies conducted so far estimate that 1 to 3 percent of implant recipients could be affected by the problem. A recent editorial in a medical journal for orthopedic surgeons, The Journal of Arthroplasty, urged doctors to use the metal-on-metal devices only with "great caution, if at all." Barry Meier, The New York Times