Are drug companies to blame for shoulder pain pump injuries?
Pain pumps are devices that are used to deliver medication to a surgical site. Medication is stored in a balloon that rests outside the body. A catheter is fed from the balloon and implanted into the surgical site, where it delivers medication for up to 72 hours. Once all the medication has been released, the patients simply pulls the catheter out. Pain pumps are often used in shoulder surgery and work effectively when used as approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with the catheter implanted in the shoulder tissue. However, in the early 2000s, pain pump manufacturers began advising physicians to insert the catheter directly into the shoulder joint, a method not approved by the FDA. When pain pumps were used in this manner, medication dripped directly into the shoulder joint, slowly eating away at the cartilage. Patients began experiencing a painful and debilitating condition known as chondrolysis. As a result, numerous lawsuits have been filed against the manufacturers of
