Smith & Nephew Prevails in Md. Federal BHR Hip Action

BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Smith & Nephew of misrepresenting the risks posed by its Birmingham Hip Resurfacing hip replacement device to an implanting surgeon, ruling the plaintiffs’ arguments are too speculative to support their claims.

In a Jan. 8 order, Judge Catherine Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland added that the plaintiffs relied on “an untenable chain of inferences.”

Lewis Williams Jr. was diagnosed as having severe degenerative osteoarthritis in 2005 and underwent implantation of the BHR hip system in September 2006, a month after his surgeon, Dr. …