The accumulation of metal from a DePuy implant can cause pain and swelling around the joint, as well as more serious complications such as bone destruction and soft-tissue damage. Patients who experience dangerous amounts of metal accumulation because of a DePuy hip implant may have to undergo hip replacement surgery. While DePuy states that metal debris does not cause problems for most patients, a recent study conducted by English researchers showed that 3.4 percent of patients from a pool of 660 DePuy metal implant recipients experienced adverse reactions due to metallic particles. The researchers also studied a group of 155 patients who received a competitor's resurfacing system and found that these patients did not experience similar problems. Replacement procedures undertaken because of excessive metal accumulation are often much more complex than replacement procedures performed because of a more common problem such as dislocation. Experts warn that the long-term effects of metal accumulation have not yet been realized in their entirety. In an editorial that ran in the June issue of The Journal of Arthroplasty, three leading physicians argued that metal hip implants "do not show any clinical advantage," but rather "are producing a new series of complications."
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