Four new plaintiffs have filed suit against University of Missouri’s Mizzou BioJoint® Center, bringing the total number of personal injury lawsuits and medical malpractice actions against Mizzou for its BioJoint surgeries to 12.
Number of Mizzou Living Cell Lawsuits Is Growing
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Mizzou’s BioJoint surgeries regard the use of allograft bone tissue and cartilage to treat osteoarthritis in the knee. The procedure also uses living cells that are harvested from the patient’s bone marrow to facilitate the healing process.
OTW previously reported that lawsuits against Mizzou’s BioJoint Center started in March 2018. When we last reported on this, only three plaintiffs had filed against the university.
The four new plaintiffs are claiming that they suffered pain and/or damage as a result of the BioJoint procedure that was performed by Mizzou orthopedic surgeon James Stannard, M.D. and James Cook, Ph.D., who is the William & Kathryn Allen Distinguished Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery, Director of the Thompson Laboratory for Regenerative Orthopaedics and Chief, Orthopaedic Research.
Each of the plaintiffs is alleging that they underwent multiple surgeries and procedures that did not alleviate their symptoms. Three of the four plaintiffs went on to have a traditional total knee replacement.
The plaintiffs claim that MU Health Care failed to disclose that the surgery was experimental. They also allege that MU failed to inform patients that there was insufficient data to determine long-term risk and the impact it may have on a total knee replacement if it failed. The plaintiffs further claim that James Cook was misleadingly represented as an orthopedic surgeon and physician.
Attorney for the plaintiffs Todd Hendrickson has said, “the plaintiffs have all undergone multiple surgical procedures, in some cases unnecessarily, and many have been left with significant disabilities…the university and its employees have made representations about the nature and success of BioJoint procedures which we believe are untrue.”
MU Health Care spokeswoman Jesslyn Chew has declined to comment on the pending litigation but has told OTW that “we are confident in the Mizzou BioJoint program and very proud of our outstanding team who provides treatment options to patients with knee, ankle, shoulder and other joint problems.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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