Stryker Reaches Settlement in Four Hip Implant Lawsuits

Hackensack, New Jersey—Stryker Corp. has settled lawsuits filed by four patients who alleged injuries from defective hip implants manufactured by the company.

More than 600 lawsuits have been filed against Stryker alleging problems with its Rejuvenate and ABG II hip devices. The metal-on-metal implants were touted as devices that would last for decades, but the devices are associated with corrosion and fretting, which can cause pain and swelling. The problems have forced some patients to undergo painful revision surgeries to remove the dangerous device, often within just a few years of receiving the implant.

Responding to the large number of lawsuits against Stryker, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated all of the federal cases in the U.S. District of Minnesota. The Honorable Donovan W. Frank is assigned to oversee those cases. State court cases filed in New Jersey, the home of Stryker Corp., were consolidated in the Superior Court in Bergen County.

The settlements reached in these four Stryker cases follow a global settlement reached in the DePuy ASR cases, a competing metal-on-metal hip implant associated with similar problems. The value of the global settlement in those cases is estimated to be $2.5 billion.