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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.
Many athletes who rely on their throwing motion for their livelihood consider the torn shoulder labrum one of the most fearsome injuries. In many cases, it can ruin a career or at the very least, leave them benched for weeks if not months.
Postoperative pain delivery system developer and marketer I-Flow Corporation may be facing lawsuits for needlessly injuring patients by instructing physicians to use their products incorrectly, but the company doesn’t seem to be suffering. The company recently announced that total revenue for the first quarter of 2009 has skyrocketed by 9 percent over the first quarter of 2008 – an increase of about $2.5 million, according to OC Metro.
Mathew McKeown, 23, of Blue Ash, Ohio, dreamed of playing pro ball. He was an all-city football player in high school and earned a scholarship to play for Miami. Making it to the NFL was just a matter of time.
But during a game in October 2006, McKeown’s left shoulder was injured while trying to recover a fumble. Doctors implanted the catheter of a On-Q PainBuster pain pump manufactured by I-Flow into his shoulder joint. For up to 72 hours, medication gradually dripped into his shoulder and slowly began eating away at the cartilage.
There are approximately 140 lawsuits against manufacturers of pain pumps currently pending in state and federal courts throughout the country filed on behalf of patients who had used pain pump devices following shoulder repair surgery that were unreasonably and dangerously defective and caused serious pain and disability. The number of lawsuits has jumped considerably since the summer of 2008, says Frank Woodson, shareholder with Beasley Allen Law Firm.
The On-Q PainBuster pain pump manufactured and marketed by I-Flow Corporation, is now being used by obstetricians and gynecologists to ease a woman’s pain caused from the incision made for Caesarean section deliveries and hysterectomies, according to the Fort Wayne, Indiana News-Sentinel.
Astros baseball catcher Toby Hall, who has been contemplating shoulder surgery since suffering a torn labrum two years ago, has decided to move forward with shoulder surgery, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Two studies show that knee surgery is beneficial at times but should not be performed routinely for the treatment of osteoarthritis, according to Fox News. The studies were published in a recent New England Journal of Medicine. One finds that medicine combined with physical therapy is just as effective as surgery for relieving the pain and stiffness of moderate or severe arthritis. The other study finds that tears in knee cartilage that often result in surgery are very common and do not always cause symptoms.
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.
Health Canada has issued a statement encouraging health care professionals to follow instructions for use and refrain from using postoperative pain pumps for continuous intra-auricular infusion of local anesthetics – especially with epinephrine – after shoulder surgery.
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