Studies show that the DePuy Synthes Attune® knee replacement can loosen and fail in just a few months. These problems are caused by poor bonding between the implant and the bone.
UPDATE: 1st Attune Knee Lawsuit Filed in Alabama
In September 2017, lawyers in Alabama filed what is believed to be the 1st lawsuit involving a patient who needed surgery when their DePuy Attune® knee replacement loosened and failed prematurely. Click here to read more.
What is the problem?
Patients are suffering pain, instability, and needing revision surgery within 1-2 years of receiving a DePuy Synthes Attune® Knee Implant. Experts believe these knee implants are failing due to inadequate bonding between the patient’s knee bones and the tibial baseplate.
Signs & Symptoms of Knee Implant Failure
- Knee pain
- Instability
- Loosening
- Infection
- Nerve damage
- Inflammation
- Bone fracture
- Muscle damage
- Swelling
- Decreased mobility or range of motion
Having Problems With Your Knee Implant?
You may have a loose component in your knee replacement if it “gives out,” moves sideways, or backwards when you put weight on the knee. The other common symptoms of knee implant failure include persistent pain, inflammation, and swelling due to fluid accumulation.
Knee Implants Can Loosen Within Months
The bad news is that some patients suffer loose components within a few months of having the DePuy Attune® knee replacement. In other cases, loose components do not cause symptoms for years. The amount of time depends on whether the implant was cemented to the bone in the first place, or whether it gradually loosened over time.
Find Out Why Your Knee Implant Failed
It does not matter if you had surgery a few months or a few years ago — if your knee problems are getting worse, it is important to find out why. Doctors may not be able to tell from an X-ray if a loose component is what is causing problems with your knee replacement. You may need another surgery, especially if you are having trouble walking.
Revision Surgery After a Bad Knee Replacement
Revision surgery it is usually far more difficult and physically traumatic than the original surgery. The bad knee implant must be removed and replaced with a new one. Because there is no way to replace damaged bones or muscle, many victims are left with one leg shorter than the other, limited mobility, disability, or a limp.
Study: “Unusually High Rate of Early Failure of Tibial Component”
Tibial baseplate de-bonding is causing DePuy Attune® knee implants to loosen and fail within a few months, according to a study published in June 2017.
Surgeons removed the implant from 15 patients who were suffering pain and limited mobility within 2 years of their initial surgery. They found that all 15 patients had loose components in the knee — and no bone cement bonding the tibial baseplate to the bone.
The surgeons said they “encountered a high rate of debonding of tibial implant-cement interface,” with 21 complaints in the last two months alone. Furthermore, they blamed the failures on design flaws:
“Several possible reasons include increased constraint, reduced cement pockets, and reduced keel rotational stabilizers. The tibial component, which has greater torsional loads, has lower surface roughness than femoral component.”
The study is “Unusually High Rate of Early Failure of Tibial Component in ATTUNE Total Knee Arthroplasty System at Implant-Cement Interface” in the Journal of Knee Surgery.
DePuy Knee Implant Recall
In June 2015, DePuy issued a Class II recall for approximately 3,274 units of the Attune® knee replacement because a small wire spring could potentially break off during surgery and get left in a patient’s knee.
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