THE HSE WILL order a review in the coming days of patients in Ireland fitted with metal-on-metal hip replacements.

A metal-on-metal hip is thought to be stronger than a traditional hip replacement device because both the ball and socket are made of metal.

The review follows a similar investigation launched in the UK last year by the MRHA, the UK’s medical devices regulatory body.

It is estimated that approximately 8,000 patients in Ireland have been fitted with a metal-on-metal device. Roughly 3,500 of those patients were fitted with ASR devices made by the manufacturer DePuy and have already been reviewed.

The DePuy devices were recalled in 2010 following concerns about their early failure rate. More than 21 per cent of the devices were found to require revision surgery after only five years.

At that time of the recall, DePuy said “more people than expected who received the ASR Hip System experienced pain and other symptoms that led to a second hip replacement surgery.”

However, the HSE told TheJournal.ie that the new review was not prompted by any specific safety concerns.

“There are no immediate safety concerns with these implants. This is not a product recall, this is a review,” a spokesperson said.

The MRHA alert in the UK last year identified four groups of devices for review:

• MoM (metal-on-metal) hip resurfacing imlpants
• No stem Stemmed MoM total hip replacements with a head diameter of less than 36 mm
• Stemmed MoM total hip replacements with a head diameter of less than 36 mm
• DePuy ASR hip replacements

A new national database, the Irish National Orthopaedic Register (INOR), will begin logging information on all hip and knee replacement surgeries that take place in Ireland from September onward.

Letters will be issued to those affected by the review within the next few days.

Read: Irish recipients of defective hip implants to sue manufacturer>

Read: Hip replacement devices recalled>