The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has scheduled an advisory meeting to discuss metal-on-metal hip implants. This, in the midst of increasing concern over the safety of the now-controversial medical devices.
The meeting, a two-day event, said Reuters, will involve an expert review that could lead to the creation of significantly more stringent standards. Scheduled for June 27-28, the panel will include scientists, researchers, patients, and medical practitioners and is meant to assist federal regulators on potential new testing standards and medical device review requirements needed to allow such products to be sold in the United States.
The panel meeting will look at “failure rates, metal ion testing, imaging methods, patient risk factors, follow-up surgery, and complications linked to metal-on-metal hip replacement and resurfacing systems, said Reuters.
“We are asking outside scientific and medical experts to discuss recent information on these devices so that the agency can continue to make reliable safety recommendations,” said Dr. William Maisel, deputy director of science at FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, wrote Reuters.
The FDA’s announcement yesterday followed its order last May in which it directed 21 companies that market metal-on-metal hip replacement devices to conduct post-market studies of their products.
