‘Hundreds of thousands’ fitted with suspect hip implants

The risk of leakage from cobalt-chrome implants has been known since 1975, when doctors discovered that local tissue reacts to ions, or charged atoms, from these metals. — shutterstock.com

PARIS, Feb 29 — Hundreds of thousands of people have been fitted with replacement hips whose flawed design may be exposing them to toxic metal, according to a probe by the BBC and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) unveiled yesterday.

The risk comes from “metal on metal” joints that grind against each other, with the risk of leaking cobalt and chromium into the body, it said.

It pointed the finger at DePuy Orthopaedics, a subsidiary of the US medical conglomerate Johnson & Johnson, saying that the firm continued to sell the hips even after it knew of the risk.