Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

A lawsuit filed filed against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Stryker Corp. claims the companies distributed defective pain pumps even after learning the pumps had destroyed shoulder cartilage and the FDA had repeatedly rejected the products, according to Courthouse News Service. The lawsuit also names Hospira Inc. and Abbott Labs, saying the two companies encouraged the pain pump manufacturers to use their anesthetic drugs in conjunction with the pumps even though the medications had not been properly tested.

Post-operative pain pumps are a pain-management system that deliver medication directly to the surgical wound. The pumps came under fire recently after The American Journal of Sports Medicine linked intra-articular (or post-operative) pain pumps to cases of Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondrolysis, a progressive degeneration of the cartilage in the shoulder resulting in pain and loss of motion. Chondrolysis is a chronic condition that often requires surgery.

Until the 1990s, the pumps delivered medication at a limited flow rate. In the late 1990s, manufacturers increased the amount of anesthetic used in the pain pumps. The lawsuit contends that continuous injection of the high-volume anesthetics into the shoulder can cause serious and permanent damage to the joint cartilage in the shoulder. The lawsuit also claims the pumps were marketed without first doing studies to determine the safety of the high-volume pain pumps or what damage could have occurred, instead encouraging use of both the pain pumps with the high doses of anesthetics.

“The plaintiffs are demanding compensatory damages for fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation negligence, strict liability, and breach of warranty,” according to the report.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 10:46 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.