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

Shoulder surgery may be the only hope for Chicago Cubs pitcher Angel Guzman to get back into the game. A recent MRI revealed that the right-handed pitcher had a severe tear in a ligament in his shoulder near his armpit. Despite the finding, he says he is seeking a second opinion from renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews to determine if surgery is preferable to a more conservative treatment. “It’s gong to be tough,” he told MLB.com. “By doing (the surgery), I have a small chance (of playing in the major leagues), but there is a chance.”

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Several local anesthetics have added warnings on their labels notifying health care professionals that using the drugs in intra-articular devices, or pain pumps, following arthroscopic and other surgical procedures is not approved and has been linked to cases of a painful and debilitating condition of the shoulder joint known as chondrolysis, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Drug Safety report for February 2010. The cases of chondrolysis were reported in both pediatric and adult patients following intra-articular infusions of the anesthetics with and without epinephrine, a hormone neurotransmitter, for 48 to 72 hours following surgery.

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Spring is just around the corner, which means baseball season will soon start for millions of American children. But experts say parents and children should be cautious of shoulder injuries, as more and more young baseball players are getting benched because of them.

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Michael Johnson says neither he nor his doctor would have agreed to have a pain pump devices implanted into his shoulder joint during two arthroscopic surgeries if he knew that by doing so it would result in a full shoulder joint replacement. Johnson contends that the manufacturers of the medical device knew that the pain pumps were unreasonably and dangerously defective, and yet they did nothing to warn him or his surgeon about the risks associated with using it. Furthermore, he claims, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically prohibited the marketing of pain pump devices with anesthetics to be placed in the joint cavity.

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Shoulder dislocations most often occur during sports activities and young men are at the greatest risk of having them, one of the main reasons young athletes see orthopaedic surgeons, according to a study published in the March 2010 issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS). The study also puts elderly women at high risk of shoulder dislocation. Researchers add that despite the prevalence of shoulder dislocations, the injuries are relatively under-reported.

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