Posts Tagged ‘ shoulder pain pump ’

Shoulder Pain Pump True Stories

October 20th, 2009. By Hunter West

Individuals who suffer a shoulder injury, only to suffer through the pain and inconvenience of shoulder surgery should not have to bear even more suffering once the surgical repair is made. But they do. 

For the uninformed, the shoulder pain pump—like all pain pumps—is a device that makes fast work of delivering pain medication quickly and efficiently to relieve the suffering encountered by a shoulder surgery patient. And make no mistake—shoulder surgery is painful. Little wonder that doctors were looking for ways to deliver pain medication more efficiently than what oral pain meds are capable of. Doctors were also looking for a level of control that giving a patient a bottle filled with potent pain pills did not provide. 

The pain pump proved to be the answer: a device that delivered pain medication directly to the wound site through the insertion of a catheter, in a carefully controlled fashion. 

Shoulder pain pumps were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in soft tissue surrounding the shoulder. However they are NOT approved for delivering pain medication directly into the shoulder joint. The FDA, in fact rejected that indication when the pain pump manufacturers put it forward. 

They didn’t tell the doctors that. Doctors were, in fact led to believe that using pain pumps Read the rest of this entry »

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PAGCL – Man-Made or Man Induced?

August 24th, 2009. By LucyC

Post arthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis (PAGCL)—ever heard of it? Chances are probably not—unless you have it. 

PAGCL is a painful and debilitating condition characterized by the deterioration of cartilage between bones—cartilage is the stuff that prevents bone from grinding on bone. The problem with cartilage is that it doesn’t renew itself when it becomes damaged. There’s no blood flow to cartilage—so it can’t renew itself. So, once damaged, forever damaged. 

It turns out that some types of pain medication delivered via a shoulder pain pump for example, are toxic to cartilage, and can cause PAGCL. So the very thing that’s meant to help in fact harms, permanently. Some reports suggest that just a few days worth of exposure can harm the cartilage. Read the rest of this entry »

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Shoulder Pain Pumps: Career Breakers for Young Athletes?

August 8th, 2009. By janem

Amazingly, shoulder pain pumps are still in use, even though over 2 years ago (July, 2007) the American Journal of Sports Medicine associated postarthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis (also known as PAGCL) with ” intra-articular pain pump catheters eluting bupivacaine with epinephrine”, i.e, shoulder pain pumps. In fact 12 out of 19 patients who were treated with this pump developed PAGCL-AKA dead cartilage.

The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine concluded that “Intra-articular pain pump catheters, especially those eluting bupivacaine with epinephrine, should be avoided until further investigation.” And they’re the experts, so why has the FDA only slapped a black box warning on pain pumps?

It’s bad enough suffering a serious shoulder injury. But say you’re a healthy young athlete, at the height of your career, and your doc gives you a medical device to feel better. Instead, it makes you worse-forever. But for the use of the pain pump, you could have recovered, you could’ve been a contender!

Now, this medical device has prevented you from playing and competing in the sport you love. Shoulder pain pumps can be career breakers. Do you blame the doctor? Allegedly, pain pump manufacturers directed doctors to use the pumps in a manner not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But I’d be wondering why the FDA approved this device in the first place…

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Shoulder Pain Pump Delivers More than Physical Damage

July 29th, 2009. By janem

Imagine having shoulder surgery to make you better and instead, it makes you worse. In fact, it ruins your career–forever. That’s what is happening to some people who have been given a shoulder pain pump after surgery who now have to deal with dead cartilage.

Intra-articular pumps were designed to be placed in the shoulder tissue for pain relief. Before these pumps existed, patients were given pills or injections to ease the pain under the watchful eyes of medical staff. But hospital beds are scarce and most medical facilities want you out ASAP, so patients would go home earlier to recover with these pain pumps.

But some people didn’t recover-in fact the pain pumps have harmed them irreparably. Doctors began to see their patients develop chondrolysis, which is severe damage to the shoulder cartilage. Many patients suffer shoulder injuries because they use their shoulders in their careers-athletes for instance. So not only do they suffer extreme pain and loss of motion from these toxic pain meds destroying cartilage, now they’re also out of work, no doubt with spare time to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer.

Tags: shoulder pain pump
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