The Food and Drug has recently issued an alert [November 13, 2009 Updated: February 16, 2010] after reviewing 35 reports of damaged and destroyed cartilage in patients who were given pain pumps after shoulder surgery. The death of the cartilage causes a grinding bone-on-bone joint resulting in the severe pain.  A pain pump is medical device used to manage post-operative pain.  This device pumps continuous pain relief medication directly into the patient’s shoulder by way of a catheter.

There is currently evidence that these pain pumps have caused irreversible shoulder damage, (glenohumeral chondrolysis,” which is the complete or nearly complete loss of cartilage in the shoulder joint.  Glenohumeral chondrolysis cannot be treated.  Cartliag damage is irreversible.  This is a disabling and excruciatingly painful condition. The injured person may well need to take medication for life and may have to undergo reconstructive shoulder surgery. 

The FDA is now requiring physicians to inform their patients about the substantial risk that the insertion of shoulder pain pumps may lead to Chrondrolysis.  Despite their rather widespread use, the FDA never approved pain pumps for use in joints.

Before undergoing shoulder surgery or any other type of joint surgery you should carefully question your surgeon about both the benefits and the potential damagers of pain pumps.  More than 140 lawsuits have been filed against manufacturers of these pain pumps (one being I-Flow Corp. of Lake Forest, California).  The plaintiffs in these lawsuits are claiming these companies negligently encouraged physicians to inset catheters directly into the shoulder joint space even though the safety of this technique has never been studied.