Access To Justice

Following orthopedic shoulder surgery, a number of physicians have prescribed anesthetic “pain pumps,” which were marketed by I-Flow, Stryker, and others allegedly for this purpose.  However, that marketing may have been misleading, as the FDA never approved them for patients with orthopedic or intra-articular shoulder surgery and they were not tested for that use.

Plaintiffs in nearly 20 lawsuits, with more expected, will go to court starting in January 2010, alleging that the pain pumps caused debilitating Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondrolysis (PAGCL), a condition that destroys cartilage and often requires full joint replacement.  The American Journal of Sports Medicine published a study in the July 3, 2007 edition of AJSM PreView that demonstrated the link between PAGCL and the use of pain pump catheters in the shoulder joints of arthroscopic surgery patients. Many athletes, and former athletes, are now plaintiffs.  Their pain pumps leaked an anesthetic directly onto cartilage, causing it to decay.

PAGCL can present in a range of symptoms:

• Increased shoulder pain and stiffness
• Loss of cartilage
• Decreased range of motion
• Loss of joint space in the shoulder joint
• Clicking, popping or grinding (Crepitus) in the shoulder
• Loss of strength

If you or a family member has been prescribed a pain pump and encountered these symptoms, we may be able to help.