Okla. Judge Excludes Lab Test Results for Plaintiff’s Explanted Knee Implant Device

TULSA, Okla. — A federal judge in Oklahoma has granted motions by Zimmer Inc. to exclude evidence and testimony generated from a laboratory’s analysis of an artificial knee implant that failed just two years after it was implanted.

Judge Claire V. Egan of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma ruled March 6 that a combination of “misapplications” that occurred during inspection of plaintiff Brian Howard’s explanted device render the lab’s report unreliable under federal evidentiary standards.

Howard filed his complaint in 2002, alleging that the Sulzer Natural Knee II (NK-II) baseplate he had surgically implanted …