Defective Knee & Hip Joints – A Need For a National Joint Registry

As Atlanta injury lawyers, we see many accident victims undergo knee and hip replacement surgery every year. Many of these victims are injured as a result of automobile and truck accidents and many result from work related injuries. The fact is nearly one million hips and knees were replaced last year in the United States alone. This represents approximately one-half (½) of the world’s total, making the U.S. the largest provider and user of implants.
Although the Food and Drug Administration is charged with monitoring devices such as artificial joints, the monitoring process is ineffective for several reasons. One reason is the FDA is overwhelmed by the vast number of products that it monitors. Another reason is that there is no system in place by which doctors can report problems with medical devices such as artificial joints. The sad truth is that the United States has no national database to track patients who receive artificial joints. Other nations, including Australia, Britain, Norway and Sweden have national databases which allow the monitoring of these medical devices. In these countries where “joint registries” exist, regulators are able to use data collected by the registry to force manufacturers of artificial joints to justify why poorly performing hips or knees should remain available and, in some cases have provided the data necessary for the complete withdrawal of products from the market.
For many years there have been efforts made to set up an open national registry in the United States; however, these efforts have failed. There are many reasons for this which include 1) medical providers not willing to complete paperwork, 2) fear that plaintiff’s lawyers would use such a database to either find cases or prosecute products liability cases and 3) perhaps because of suspected lucrative financial relationships between orthopaedic surgeons and the manufacturer of these products.
Whatever the reason, it is time for the United States to mandate a national database/joint registry for the protection of the thousands of Americans who undergo joint replacement surgery or procedures. With such a database, the existence of defective artificial joints would become apparent to orthopedic surgeons and their patients sooner rather than later. Early discovery of such defective products would save insurance companies and the government (Medicare) from paying millions of dollars in unnecessary repeat surgical costs and would save the patients from having to endure having to repeat the procedure.