Patients who used a shoulder pain pump during the recovery phase of their shoulder surgery may be at risk of developing Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondrolysis, or PAGCL, a very painful condition that may cause a permanent loss of mobility. Contacting an attorney who understands the controversy surrounding the link between pain pumps and PAGCL can provide important information about what researchers have discovered and how you may be affected.

Attorney Ted Meadows

Alabama attorney, Ted Meadows, has been following the controversy surrounding pain pumps and their connection to PAGCL for several years. In a recent interview, we asked Meadows why someone should contact an attorney now if they’re experiencing problems after using one of the pain pumps. Here’s what he told us:

If they’ve recently had shoulder surgery and a post surgical pain pump was used, it’s worth it for a lawyer to take a look at the medical records and see where that catheter was pointed. The same if true for patients who have had shoulder surgery and are experiencing pain, grinding or popping that their doctor tells them shouldn’t be there or they just feel like they are worse than they were before surgery.

If the catheter was pointed into the joint space, thereby exposing it to the medication, then it’s worthwhile to either look at post-surgical X rays or get some X rays done of the shoulder area to see if there’s been a decrease in the joint space.

What doctors know

Doctors who prescribe pain pumps may not realize the potential damage that these devices can cause. In fact, they may know very little about the issue at all. We asked Meadows whether he thought that doctors should be aware of the issues surrounding pain pumps. He said:

If the company sales representatives have told them as much, then yes. However, so far we have not heard of such warnings. Certainly, the companies have not yet put a clear warning on the label that doctors read.

In my opinion, these companies either knew about this problem or they should have known about it. When the FDA asked these companies for safety data in 1998, what happened? Did they do studies and then bury them? Did they not do any studies because they were afraid of what they might find out? These are questions they’re going to have to answer.

Meadows explained that a company called McKinley Medical (purchased by Stryker in 2000), asked the FDA whether it could promote the product by having doctors inject pain medication directly into the joint space of a patient’s shoulder. The FDA requested that McKinley conduct studies about the effects of the process, but the company doesn’t seem to have followed through.

The FDA did follow through. It told McKinley Medical that it could not promote the product in that fashion. Meadows said that despite the FDA’s instructions, “We have not seen [manufacturers] telling [doctors] where to point the medication. However, we do know the label does not warn against pointing it into the joint space.”

What patients need to know

Meadows told us that some of the current cases he’s seen have concerned pain pump usage from the 1990s – nearly 10 years ago. He explained, “We don’t know for sure, but I can tell you that I have seen some cases where the surgery took place in the late 1990s. A number of people from 2000 to 2002 have classic symptoms and have been living with the pain since then. Many of their doctors simply shrug their shoulders and say, “I don’t understand what the problem is.”

If you have experienced any of these conditions after using a pain pump, contact an attorney to discuss your situation. For a free, no-obligation consultation with a qualified attorney whose practice focuses in this area of law, please click here.