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Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

arstechnica.com

11–20 of 23 posts

Re: Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

#11
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Age. Hip replacement surgery is common among the elderly.

She had a hip replacement at age 37. That's not due to age.

The question (“what set of conditions actually cause a person to get a hip replacement surgery apart from an accident?”) wasn’t about her case. The article clearly indicates she had an accident (“Twenty years before, she had a hip replacement that stemmed from an injury she sustained in a car crash ten years before that”)

Re: Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

#13
post #5

I do not know who these Very Important Patients are, what sort of insurance they carry, what their social-credit ratings are, or what sort of providers they see, but this article reads to me like an episode of “House MD” or “Doc Martin”. I can only vouch for my personal lived experience, as a mentally ill man living in poverty, on Medicaid and ACA plans. No provider would ever in a million years do this kind of dilig…

There actually was an episode of House with this very diagnosis from a hip replacement, https://house.fandom.com/wiki/Family_Practice

lmao the reason he finally figured it out was because she didn't understand him sarcasm, so he figured she must have neurological issues? classic

Re: Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

#14
post #5

I do not know who these Very Important Patients are, what sort of insurance they carry, what their social-credit ratings are, or what sort of providers they see, but this article reads to me like an episode of “House MD” or “Doc Martin”. I can only vouch for my personal lived experience, as a mentally ill man living in poverty, on Medicaid and ACA plans. No provider would ever in a million years do this kind of dilig…

There actually was an episode of House with this very diagnosis from a hip replacement, https://house.fandom.com/wiki/Family_Practice

My hottest policy take is that all physicians have to watch House all the way through.

Re: Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

#15

I do not know who these Very Important Patients are, what sort of insurance they carry, what their social-credit ratings are, or what sort of providers they see, but this article reads to me like an episode of “House MD” or “Doc Martin”. I can only vouch for my personal lived experience, as a mentally ill man living in poverty, on Medicaid and ACA plans. No provider would ever in a million years do this kind of dilig…

It's a common and well-known consequence of hip replacements.

This paper from 2015 describes a similar case (quickly identified via X-ray by the deformation of the metal structure)

    "It has been well established in the literature that revision of a fractured ceramic total hip replacement with metallic components can result in metallosis. Several authors have reported symptomatic cobalt toxicity after revision of a failed ceramic head component to a metal-on-polyethylene articulation"
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4958112/

Re: Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

#16
post #12

I wonder if the same can happen from dental implants. While not subject to the same levels of mechanical stress, the mouth can be a very acidic environment which can be corrosive to metals.

In general, mercury amalgam fillings are being phased out, mostly because modern alternatives are superior.

The risk to the individual is actually really low, but cremation and general waste disposal introduces mercury as a pollutant to the environment.

https://www.optimaldentalhealth.co.uk/mercury-fillings-banne...

Re: Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

#18
post #2

Ouch! I must say, she got lucky they diagnosed the cobalt poisoning in time.

Why do they use cobalt? For imaging?! I always assumed they used titanium or platinum :/

  Cobalt-chrome is the most commonly used metal for hip implants. Titanium is also used but is a softer metal with similar properties to bone.
~ https://practiceplusgroup.com/knowledge-hub/what-hip-replace...

with known risks:

Cobalt toxicity — an emerging clinical problem in patients (2011) - https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2011/194/12/cobalt-toxicity-e...

Cobalt-chromium toxicity following revision of total hip replacement (2024) - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11115421/

Re: Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

#19
post #2

Ouch! I must say, she got lucky they diagnosed the cobalt poisoning in time.

Why do they use cobalt? For imaging?! I always assumed they used titanium or platinum :/

Because the human body is warm and wet and salty and so despite the forces being low when your criteria are "super long wearing" and "non-reactive" you wind up with kind of a shitty list of options.

It's "supposed" to remain in solid form.

Re: Woman's hip replacement disintegrates, causing metal poisoning

#20
post #12

I wonder if the same can happen from dental implants. While not subject to the same levels of mechanical stress, the mouth can be a very acidic environment which can be corrosive to metals.

If you mean the 'screw in jawbone' style implants, those are generally made of titanium.
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