14 Apr 2012

Metal hip replacement device recalled

9:50 pm on 14 April 2012

The Government's medical safety regulator, Medsafe, says anyone with pain from a hip replacement should see their doctor, after the recall of two hip replacement devices.

A second type of metal hip replacement device has been recalled, after problems with its durability were discovered.

Forty one people in New Zealand received the hip replacement, known as the MITCH THR, between 2006 - 2010. Three have since had them removed.

Medsafe says some of the metal devices have loosened within three years of implant, causing pain and swelling, when they should last at least 10 years. Surgeons have been asked to contact their patients.

Group manager Stewart Jessamine says this is a different hip device to that produced by the British company, DePuy, whose metal on metal device was recalled four years ago, after some recipients discovered toxic levels of metal in their systems.

A total of 507 New Zealand patients were fitted with DePuy's devices and 28 have joined an international class action against the manufacturer.

DePuy bought Finsbury Orthopaedics, the manufacturer of the MITCH THR, in 2009.

Some 60,000 New Zealanders have had hip replacements.