Zimmer NexGen Knee Implant Attorneys Serving Nationwide

The Zimmer NexGen knee replacement system has been linked to several problems, including reports of pain, loosening of the implant and failure of the Zimmer replacement knee leading to revision surgery.

In March 2010, data was presented by a group of knee surgeons that indicates that 36% of the implants were loose after two years, and 9.3% of the implants were either revised or scheduled to be revised because of looseness and associated pain. According to the surgeons, the Zimmer NexGen knee implants should not be used for any patient due to the high failure rates.

If the Zimmer NexGen knee implant becomes loose it may cause pain and may require subsequent knee replacement surgery.

More than 150,000 Zimmer NexGen CR and Zimmer NexGen CR-Flex Porous Femoral implants have been sold since 2003, and some doctors have reported experiencing a substantially higher than the usual failure rate of replacement knees within several years of surgery.

The defective Zimmer NexGen CR-Flex product is a femoral implant. The femoral implant is a synthetic device used to cap the femur (the thigh bone) at the point where it connects to the tibia at the knee. It is made of porous fiber metal and a cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy and is attached to the femur without cement, unlike many other traditional knee implants. Because the Zimmer NextGen knee implant does not use a cement it may be a design defect which increases the risk of a knee replacement loosening and needing additional surgery to revise the implant.

Data Reveals Painful Consequences for Knee Implant Patients

At a conference of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in March 2010, several prominent knee surgeons presented data on the outcomes of 108 knee replacement patients who received the Zimmer NexGen CR-Flex Porous Femoral component at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

After only two years, the researchers reported:

• 9 patients required knee revision surgery due to loosening and pain

• 39 patients showed evidence of radiographic loosening

It is suspected that the higher-than-expected failure rate is linked to design problems with Zimmer NexGen replacement knees, as the orthopedic surgeons concluded that they were not caused by surgical errors, problems with the technique or the type of patient who received the knee implant.

It appears that the manufacturer was aware of the risk of problems with the Zimmer NexGen knee replacements, yet failed to take adequate steps to reduce the risk of injury or warn consumers. Financial compensation may be available through a Zimmer NexGen knee replacement lawsuit if one of these knee replacements resulted in loosening, failure or other knee complications.