› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
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.
Denver Rockies starting pitcher Jeff Francis has been trying to ignore the aching pain in his shoulder, but what is causing him more pain is deciding whether to have shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum flap, according to the Denver Post.
A group of researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, have identified that male high school athletes in the United States are more likely than girls to suffer shoulder injuries, according to The Washington Post. The study focused on football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, baseball and softball and found that shoulder injuries did not happen frequently, but when they did occur, a disproportionate number of shoulder injuries happened to high school boys than high school girls.
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.
