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› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
One of the three principal shoulder pain pump manufacturers facing lawsuits over serious injuries associated with the use of the pain pumps is no stranger to controversy. It was also engaged in an illegal scheme for which it was prosecuted for paying hundreds of thousands – and possibly millions – of dollars to physicians for using its hip and knee replacement products exclusively.
Pain pumps are devices designed to deliver medication directly into the surgical site to manage pan after surgery. While effective for pain management, physicians began seeing more and more patients suffering from a debilitating condition known as chondrolysis following use of shoulder pain pumps. This concern was validated in a recent study by The American Journal of Sports Medicine, which identified a specific type of chondrolysis, Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondrolysis (PAGCL), associated with the use of shoulder pain pumps. As a result, hundreds of people harmed by the devices have filed suit against the manufacturers of pain pumps.
Pain pumps are devices that are used to deliver medication to a surgical site. Medication is stored in a balloon that rests outside the body. A catheter is fed from the balloon and implanted into the surgical site, where it delivers medication for up to 72 hours. Once all the medication has been released, the patients simply pulls the catheter out.
Pain pumps have been used for years by physicians to effectively deliver pain medication to surgical sites, for example, after shoulder surgery. So why are so many cases suddenly being filed against the manufacturers of pain pumps?
“I think what we’re seeing is that physicians are finally seeing the relationship between pain pumps and chondrolysis – especially since the first lawsuits were filed a couple years ago,” says Frank Woodson, shareholder with Beasley Allen Law Firm. “In addition, literature is now being published about the connection between pain pumps and chondrolysis. The more information that becomes available, the more people are learning what may be causing their shoulder problems.”
Intra-articular pain pumps were never meant to harm people. But according to mounting lawsuits against the makers of pain pumps, the manufacturers knowingly put patients at risk.
Just five years ago, baseball writer, radio host and injury expert Will Carroll called torn shoulder labrums “baseball’s most fearsome injury,” adding “If pitchers with torn labrums were horses, they’d be destroyed.” However, thanks to improvements in surgery, baseball players no longer have to look at torn labrums as career-ending injuries.
Could the intra-articular pain pumps used following knee surgery cause the same debilitating condition as pain pumps used in shoulder surgery? Possibly, according to a recent story on Spine University Web site.
Four complaints have been filed in federal court in Philadelphia against Stryker Corp., maker of medical devices including postoperative pain pumps, for causing serious arthritis. The Kalamazoo, Michigan-based company is accused of actively concealing or misrepresenting information about the safety and efficacy of its pain pumps.
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