| icans age, we’re finding out that our bodies | | | | motion and independence, to allow them to live full |
| aren’t performing the way that we’re | | | | and active lives. |
| used to. Of course we don’t have the same | | | | A hip replacement can give a patient a new lease on |
| spring in our step as teenagers, but in many cases, | | | | life, and allow them to get back to their normal |
| joints that are needed to go about the normal | | | | interests and activities. However, because it is a |
| activities of daily life are beginning to wear. This is | | | | mechanical replacement, it does need to be replaced |
| because as a Nation, we are living long and more | | | | itself, normally within ten years. For older patients, |
| active lives. | | | | this may not be a concern, but for a younger patient |
| Joints that were designed to work for forty years | | | | in their 50’s or 60’s, this means that |
| are now being called upon to operate for much | | | | one or more further difficult surgeries may be |
| longer. For many patients, this means that a joint | | | | needed. The Zimmer hip implant was marketed with |
| replacement is needed, such as a hip replacement. If | | | | the promise that it was different. It was targeted to |
| you know someone who has had a hip replacement, | | | | younger patients under the slogan that it would not |
| or have had one yourself, read on to find out more | | | | need to be replaced itself, avoiding the need for |
| information about a recall of the Zimmer hip implant. | | | | further surgery. |
| As we age, activities that we once took for granted | | | | The claim by the Zimmer hip implant representatives |
| become what can be a painful chore. Some pain and | | | | that it is long lasting have not at all stood the test of |
| soreness is natural. As our body ages, it does not | | | | time. In one test clinic, fully twelve percent of |
| function in its peak condition. But for many, the pain | | | | patients receiving this implant needed to have their |
| associated with standing, walking, or sitting becomes | | | | replacement replaced within two years. This means |
| unbearable because of irreversible damage to their | | | | that not only did the implant fail, it did so quickly, |
| hip joint. What were once active people become | | | | meaning that patients told they would need only one |
| couch potatoes, unable to do even the simplest | | | | surgery faced the fast prospect of another, and |
| activities. And it is for these people that Zimmer hip | | | | possibly of a third within their lifetime. |
| implants targeted, to give them back some of their | | | | |