The truth about going under the knife.

Despite enormous advances in surgical technology and medical devices, are all the new techniques completely safe or are patients sometimes being used as guinea pigs? We hear about a series of disastrous hip replacement operations with DuPuy ASR hips which have broken down inside the body, sometimes leading to tissue destruction and bone infections. Surgery to replace one of these hips is shown in detail. Dancer Kristopher Jones had a DuPuy ASR hip fitted by surgeon, Thomas P Schmalzried, which has failed significantly. He describes how he is suing the company. Cardiovascular surgical procedures are also advancing and new devices are emerging all the time. We see surgery in which a heart defibrilator and pace maker are inserted into a man with heart rhythm problems and hear about a faulty lead designed by Medtronic which led to huge electrical shocks being delivered to patient's hearts. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) regulates medical products but, as Director Nick Woods admits, they could improve their quality control procedures. We hear about the difficulties of removing the ASR hip from the market and about how other metal on metal hip replacements are also being shown to cause problems. Cochlear implants are another medical invention which have transformed people's lives but which have also had problems with untested elements. We hear from Chase Weatherly and his family on this.