Shoulder Pain pumps may worsen Athlete's injuries

Olympia, WABecause of their rigorous schedules and physically demanding vocation, professional athletes find themselves at the greatest risk of debilitating shoulder injuries. As a result, arthroscopic shoulder surgery has become extremely common among competitors in more grueling sports like mixed martial arts, football and hockey.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">Pavol Demitra, a winger for the Vancouver Canucks, and Cristian Guzman, shortstop for the Washington Nationals, have both been removed from their rosters due to shoulder injuries, with Demitria being placed on the long term injured list after complications from his first arthroscopic surgery arose.

In recent years doctors have prescribed an intra-articular pain pump catheter, a surgically inserted tube that periodically releases pain medication to an affected area, to help patients in recovery from arthroscopic shoulder surgery.

Yet the so called shoulder pain pump may actually be placing athletes at risk for potential paralysis, as a 2006 study linked the pain pump surgery with Postathroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis (PAGCL), a potentially crippling condition that deteriorates the cartilage of the shoulder joint.

Neither Demitria or Guzman has reported usage of the pump.