Some rotator cuff disorders – especially the early stages of rotator cuff damage –  may be treated without surgery through rest and rehabilitation, ice and heat applications, anti-inflammatory medications, and physical therapy. Situations that may require surgery include symptoms that persist for more than 6 months, injuries that occurred suddenly, or if the tear is causing weakness.

Such injuries that may require surgery are those from a major sports injury or auto accident. Very large rotator cuff tears – larger than 2 inches – and tears that affect more than one of the four rotator cuff tendons sometimes cannot be repaired. But surgery may be able to relieve pain by removing damaged tissue from the joint.

Surgery, however, cannot always completely resolve problems with regular wear-and-tear over the years. And whether you choose to have surgery or not, rehabilitation and physical therapy will be required to get your shoulder back to near-par.

Surgery risks include infection, persistent pain, slow healing followed by stiffness, and the potential need for more surgery. In some cases, surgery may cause irregular heat rhythms, changes in blood pressure and heart attack.

Patients who have had shoulder surgery in the past have also suffered from a condition in which the cartilage has worn away, called chondrolysis. This condition was found to have been caused by a pain pump device that was implanted in patients following surgery to help relieve pain for up to 72 hours following surgery. If you have had shoulder surgery and are still experiencing pain and limited mobility, or have been diagnosed with chondrolysis, you may have a claim against the manufacturer.

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › Weigh pros, cons of shoulder surgery

The pinching of the shoulder cuff muscle is one of the most common types of shoulder injury suffered by athletes who use repetitive overhead throwing motions, such as baseball and tennis players. This injury is generally caused by a muscle imbalance that can be righted with specialized training but worsened by the wrong training, according to Dr. Brughelli of SPARTA Performance Science in Menio Park, California.

The shoulder can internally rotate as fast as 7,000 degrees per second during a baseball pitch. With an injury, range of motion is reduced, compromising performance and causing pain. To avoid such injuries, Dr. Brughelli recommends that swimmers perform upper-body exercises that increase shoulder range of motion and increase strength of the scapula muscles, such as overhead pressing exercises, rowing exercises, pull-ups, chin-ups and Olympic lifts.

Most importantly, athletes should be properly trained and supervised to ensure that they are doing the exercises correctly. “With proper training and diagnosis, shoulder pain can be prevented, controlled or possibly eliminated,” Dr. Brughelli says.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › Swimmers can suffer shoulder injury from repetitive overhead movements

Pain pumps

The devices take the place of narcotics, which carry a laundry list of side effects from nausea to vomiting to constipation and decreased sleep. They also require more monitoring and may require the patient to have a longer stay in the hospital.

“It may be $2,000 a day to have a patient stay in the hospital, so in this era of trying to reduce health care costs, if we can reduce their hospitalization from three days to one – or even better, to discharge them on the day of the surgery as an outpatient – we’ve dramatically changed the cost of that shoulder replacement or other major surgery,” said Randall Malchow, director of the Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Fellowship at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Malchow discussed the benefits of pain pumps for ABC 7 News.

The biggest risk these days with shoulder pain pumps is that in some cases, the pump does not work. That requires the patient to be admitted to the hospital and have pain medications administered by doctors and nurses. There is also a slight risk – about 1 percent – of infection. Pain pumps can be used for shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee and hip replacements.

The risks have recently improved since doctors began to make a connection between an alternative use of pain pumps and a painful and debilitating condition known as chondrolysis. Chondrolysis is when the cartilage in the joint has worn away and bone begins to rub against bone.

For years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, manufacturers of pain pumps began telling doctors to implant the pumps’ catheters directly into the shoulder joint rather than into the shoulder tissue. Inserting the catheter into the shoulder joint was not an FDA-approved use, as was placing the catheter in the shoulder tissue. By placing the catheters into the joint space, the medication dripped directly onto the cartilage and began eating away at it. The result? Pain, loss of motion, and limited use of the shoulder.

Today, doctors are using pain pumps as the FDA had intended – with the catheters placed in the shoulder tissue, with few risks. However, many of those who suffered because the pain pump manufacturers gave the surgeons ill advice have slapped the manufacturers with hundreds of lawsuits seeking justice.

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › Pain pumps less risky these days

The pain pumps eliminate the need for narcotics and costly hospital stays, and revolutionized pain management for procedures such as shoulder surgery. However, pain pumps didn’t always prove to be the best solution.

The pain pumps were first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the catheters feeding into the shoulder tissue. However, in the 1990s, the manufacturers of pain pumps asked the FDA to approve an alternative use – placing the catheters directly into the shoulder joint. The FDA required more testing before it would approve such a use. Rather than following proper protocol and running tests on the alternative use, the device manufacturers began advising surgeons to place the catheters in the shoulder joint.

Months and years later, doctors began noticing patients who had had shoulder surgery were beginning to suffer from a serious and debilitating condition known as chondrolysis in which the cartilage in the joint is worn away. Those doctors began to make the connection between patients with chondrolysis and the alternative use of the pain pumps.

Today, manufacturers of pain pumps are facing hundreds of lawsuits from people who have been injured by the devices. If you or a loved one has had shoulder surgery and now suffer from pain, weakness in the shoulder, decreased range of motion in the shoulder, or weakness in the shoulder, you may have a claim against the manufacturer.

Source: WCTV-TV

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › Shoulder pain pump makers face numerous lawsuits

Pain pumps

PAGCL is a painful and debilitating condition that occurs when the cartilage in the shoulder joint wears away, causing the bones to rub together. There is no cure for PAGCL. Some patients my require shoulder replacement surgery.

There are three medical device manufacturers at the crux of the shoulder pain pump controversy – Stryker Corporation, I-Flow Corporation, and DJO Incorporated. Stryker is a multinational, publicly traded corporation that sells the McKinley Medical LLP pain pump products in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In 2006, the company reported net sales of almost $5.5 billion.

I-Flow’s family of products focuses on Regional Anesthesia, Intravenous (IV) Infusion Therapy, and Oncology Infusion Services. It’s acute pain management product line includes the ON-Q PainBuster Post-Op Pain Relief Sustem, The Soaker Catheter, and the C-bloc Continuous Nerve Block System. I-Flow has exclusive rights in the U.S. to distribute the On-Q PainBuster. In 2007, company recorded assets exceeding $81 million.

DJO is a global provider of solutions for musculosketal and vascular health that specializes in rehabilitation and regeneration products for the non-operative orthopedic, spine and vascular markets. The company manufactures and/or distributes the DonJoy Pain Control Device. In 2007, the company reported net assets of more than $173 million.

Allegations against the manufacturers include negligence, strict liability, warranty, and failure to warn physicians and patients of the risk of chondrolysis with use of the shoulder pain pumps. Those who have been injured by shoulder pain pumps are advised to seek legal counsel, as they may have a case against the manufacturer.

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › Three pain pump manufacturers at crux of controversy

Pain pumps

Pain pumps are often used in shoulder surgery and work effectively when used as approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with the catheter implanted in the shoulder tissue. However, in the early 2000s, pain pump manufacturers began advising physicians to insert the catheter directly into the shoulder joint, a method not approved by the FDA. When pain pumps were used in this manner, medication dripped directly into the shoulder joint, slowly eating away at the cartilage. Patients began experiencing a painful and debilitating condition known as chondrolysis.

As a result, numerous lawsuits have been filed against the manufacturers of pain pumps by individuals injured by the devices. But aren’t the companies that supplied the drugs used in the pain pumps also liable?

“They are, when you can find them,” says Frank Woodson, shareholder with Beasley Allen Law Firm. “One of the issues that I think that the attorneys representing pain pump victims are seeing is that is that the hospitals and/or surgical centers, wherever you had the surgery performed, sometimes do not do the best jobs of tracking what medications they placed into the pumps. I can tell you for a fact from the medical and billing records that sometimes it is impossible to determine who manufactured the medicine.”

If the manufacturer can be determined, “It is likely they are going to be added as a defendant because they knew from the medical literature that their medicine was toxic to cartilage,” Woodson says. “If they knew that their medicine was going to be used in pain pumps that were being placed intra-articularly into that joint space, then they’re just as liable as the pain pump manufacturers.”

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › Are drug companies to blame for shoulder pain pump injuries?

Intra-articular pain pumps

Intra-articular pain pumps are medical devices that hold pain medication. The devices have a tube with a catheter attached to them and that catheter is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be placed in the shoulder tissue for pain relief. The catheter is sort of like a garden hose with holes in it that you place in a flowerbed. Just as water would pass through the garden hose to water plants in the bed, medication is pumped through the catheter of the pain pumps into the shoulder tissue gradually over a 48- to 73-hour period. Once the pain medication has been completely used, the patient is instructed to simply pull the catheter out of his shoulder.

Before pain pumps became available for use, patients were given medication either orally or by injection and would have to be monitored by medical staff. The use of pain pumps allowed patients to go home earlier and require less medical attention post surgery. Used properly, risks associated with pain pumps are minimal and most patients have a relatively good recovery after physical therapy. But then tragedy struck.

“With advice from manufacturers, the pain pump catheters were being placed in the joint space or intra-articular area (as opposed to the joint tissue, as was approved by the FDA) which allowed the pain medication into the joint space,” says Frank Woodson, shareholder with Beasley Allen Law Firm. As a result, “doctors began to see patients suffer severe damage to their shoulder cartilage that we’ve rarely seen before.”

The condition, called chondrolysis, is the loss of cartilage in the joint space and causes extreme pain, loss of motion and in many cases, shoulder replacement. Those who relied on their shoulder strength, found themselves suffering from career-ending injuries.

Approximately 140 lawsuits against manufacturers of pain pumps are currently filed by individuals injured by those pumps. “As patients and physicians learn more about the link between pain pumps and chrondrolysis, I think you’ll see more people come forward,” Woodson says.

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › Pain pump manufacturers knowingly put patients at risk

One of the complainants, Glen Gore, says a Stryker pain pump was implanted in his shoulder after repair surgery in December 2002. After using the pain pump, he was had lost almost all of the cartilage in his shoulder joint, is unable to raise his arm above shoulder level, and now needs replacement surgery.

Gore is among hundreds of patients who are suing the manufacturer of the pain pumps used in shoulder surgery after the pain pumps caused serious and likely permanent injury to their shoulders. The problem dates back to the early 2000s, when pain pump manufacturers began instructing doctors to place the catheter of the pain pump directly into the shoulder joint. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had previously approved its use with the catheter placed in the shoulder tissue but had rejected the manufacturers’ request to have the alternative catheter placement approved, citing the need for studies to ensure the safety.

Placed in the shoulder joint, the catheter dripped medicine that began eating away at the cartilage. Doctors soon began to make the connection between the pain pumps and a condition known as chondrolysis, or specifically Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondrolysis. As a result, pain pump manufacturers like Stryker are facing numerous lawsuits from individuals who have been irreversibly harmed by their product.

Source: Boston.com

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › More lawsuits filed against maker of shoulder pain pumps