Should joint replacement manufactures provide a warranty for their products (OrthoGate)
Written by Brian Hatten, M.D. for OrthoGate
Should joint replacement manufactures provide a warranty for their products? It seems pretty logical since most consumer products come with some sort of warranty these days. Basic warranties are almost universally provided and the market for extended warranties is increasingly popular. Take for instance my recent upgrade to the new iPhone 5s. At the time of purchase, the AT&T store suggested their extended warranty above and beyond Apple’s provided warranty. For a small amount of money, my phone is now protected from all kinds of disasters (for a limited time, of course).
Warranties are provided for most manufactured goods, so why not joint replacements? Think about it. Joint replacements are manufactured to extremely tight tolerances and most devices work quite well for long periods of time. Catastrophic failures are rare, however, when they do happen, a warranty will provide patients assurance of a process to address the problem. From a purely manufacturing stand point, it would seem that a hip or knee implant would be an ideal product on which ...
