Growing metal-on-metal hip controversy threatens to swallow more device makers

With patients and physicians submitting adverse events to the FDA and law firms soliciting patients with injuries, the metal-on-metal hip legal storm may be headed to Smith & Nephew next, even though the company's Birmingham hip resurfacing systems have yet to undergo a recall.

As the legal fallout over metal-on-metal hip implants continue to grow, the controversy threatens to swallow all MoM device makers, even those that have avoided a recall so far.

Orthopedic device maker Smith & Nephew [1] (FTSE:SN [2], NYSE:SNN [3]) may be the next to see patient complaints, as adverse event reports gathered from the FDA's MAUDE database progress into lawsuits and then into a collective legal action.

Fellow device maker Biomet has already blazed that trail [4], with a raft of personal injury lawsuits against its M2A Magnum MoM hips consolidated in a federal court in Indiana, despite the fact that those devices have not been recalled.