How Long Exactech Implants Lasted

Artificial hips, knees, and ankles typically last 15 years or more. But many implants manufactured by Florida device company Exactech wore out in far less time, requiring risky “revision” surgery to fix the problem, according to pleadings in more than 650 lawsuits patients have filed against the company. The company denies that any of its products were defective. Exactech began recalling some knee, hip, and ankle implants in August 2021 due to a packaging problem that it said can “severely degrade” the implant.

Distribution of time between implant and revision surgery, according to patients' lawsuits:

Note: Federal cases are those filed under multidistrict litigation, January to May 2023. If one plaintiff had multiple devices, they were included. Florida cases were those filed in 2022 and 2023 to date in Alachua County. In this group, if one plaintiff had multiple devices, only the first one was listed. This chart represents 287 Florida plaintiffs, each with a device, plus 318 federal cases representing 398 devices. For this chart, dates are rounded to the nearest year.
Source: KFF Health News analysis of pending product liability cases filed in Alachua County Circuit Court and in federal courts nationwide
Credit: Lydia Zuraw, Holly K. Hacker, Fred Schulte, and Megan Kalata/KFF Health News EmbedDownload image