Shoulder injuries are serious and can be career-ending. McCoy’s injury roused speculation from fans and sports media about McCoy’s future with the NFL, which prompted Texas to release the statement to set the record straight and quiet any concerns that McCoy’s injury would sideline his football career.

According to the statement: “Colt sustained a nerve injury involving his right (throwing) shoulder that prevented him from returning to the game. The injury caused numbness and weakness in his arm that prevented him from throwing with the strength or accuracy he needed. He wanted to go back into the game but with the weakness he was having in the shoulder, we couldn’t clear him to do that.

“The weakness in his shoulder also put him at risk of greater injury. From the time of the injury, we were continually treating and re-evaluating him but he wasn’t able to regain the strength he needed to get back on the field.”

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › Texas releases statement updating McCoy shoulder injury

Shoulder injuries are not uncommon among athletes. Hard and repetitive throwing motions like those needed for football and baseball leave many players with shoulder problems, many of which require surgery. While a full recovery is usually possible, some patients’ injuries were worsened by shoulder surgery.

The phenomenon even confused doctors who performed the shoulder repair surgeries. They were finding a growing number of patients months or years after surgery were back in their offices complaining of pain, stiffness and loss of motion. Upon further inspection, doctors found those patients had developed a condition known as chondrolysis, caused by the breakdown of cartilage. As the cartilage wears away, bone begins to rub against bone causing even more pain and damage.

What doctors finally deduced was that it wasn’t the surgery that was causing this specific type of chondrolysis known as postarthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis (PAGCL), but the pain pump used during and after surgery. The pain pumps are devices that have a balloon filled with pain-deadening medication. That medication is fed directly into the wound site through a catheter for up to 72 hours.

The pumps were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the catheter placed in the shoulder tissue. But pain pump manufacturers began telling doctors to place the catheters in the shoulder joint, which allowed the joint space to be bathed in medication. What doctors didn’t realize is that constant drip of medication into the shoulder joint was slowly eating away at the cartilage, resulting in chondrolysis.

Since this discovery, published in a recent issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine, patients who have suffered serious disability from the wrongful use of pain pumps have sued the manufacturers of pain pumps. If you are experiencing the symptoms associated with chondrolysis or PAGCL, you too may have a claim against the manufacturer.

Source: St. Petersburg Times

SOURCE: Pain Pumps › FSU quarterback faces shoulder repair surgery