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

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.

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Manufacturers of pain pumps were denied approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use the devices in a different manner than what had been previously approved by the FDA for shoulder surgery. But that didn’t stop the manufacturers from advising physicians to use the devices improperly. That improper use has lead to a painful and debilitating condition in many shoulder surgery patients.

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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.

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Surgeons who perform authroscopic surgery to repair shoulder injuries in patients often use pain pumps to help alleviate pain for up to 72 hours following surgery. The pain pumps are devices that hold pain medication that is gradually released into the shoulder area through a catheter implanted in the surgical site. Once all the pain medication has been released into the joint, the catheter is removed by the patient. When used properly, the process offers a beneficial alternative to oral or intravenous painkillers. And most patients can expect a good recovery after physical therapy.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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