If you have severe pain osteoarthritis or advanced joint damage from rheumatoid arthritis, you and your doctor may be considering hip replacement surgery to restore mobility and reduce pain. The prospect of being able to use stairs again or get up from a chair without help is a motivator to undergo a surgery that benefits many orthopedic patients each year.
Unfortunately, even though hip replacement surgery is one of the most common orthopedic surgeries, errors still happen. Here are some of the hip replacement surgery errors commonly seen by law firms experienced in malpractice cases.
Deficient Evaluation
Before surgery, a physician needs to do a thorough evaluation to ensure that the patient is a good candidate for this type of surgery. Recommending surgery even though the patient does not have an adequate bone mass for a positive surgical outcome can be an error that sets up the replacement for failure.
Defective Artificial Hips
Over the years, the discovery that some of the artificial hip devices were defective was only after inserting into patients. Defective artificial hip joints can cause pain and some serious health complications such as bone fractures and dislocated joints.
New Difference In Leg Length
Many people have one leg slightly longer than the other, but when a significant difference in leg length occurs after a hip replacement, it is often an error in the insertion of the artificial joint or the mistake of choosing an incorrect implant size that is the culprit.
If you have complications from your hip surgery, it is possible that you may need another operation to remediate the damage done by a medical error or defective product.
