Pain Pump Linked to Permanent Joint Damage

Craig Swapp & Associates is no longer accepting shoulder pain pump cases. The following information is for informational purposes only.

You’ve had orthopedic surgery and now months later your joint is a mess – constant pain, loss of motion, stiffness, numbness, and clicking and grinding of the joint. If you were given a pain pump following surgery, a likely cause of your shoulder problems is postarthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis (PAGCL), a non-reversible condition that results in the degeneration of the hyaline cartilage tissue in the shoulder joint. Although the majority of PAGCL cases involve shoulder surgery, there have been several cases where a knee joint has been damaged by a pain pump.

Over the past decade, shoulder infusion pain pumps were used to deliver pain medications to the shoulder following surgery. Without FDA approval or adequate research, pain pump manufacturers instructed surgeons to insert the catheter of the pain pump directly into the shoulder joint.

Tragically, studies have linked this untested procedure to PAGCL, a non-reversible condition that results in the degeneration of the hyaline cartilage tissue in the shoulder joint. The degeneration problem of the cartilage is thought to have been created by a combination of the high acidity of the pain medication combined with displacement of the fluid surrounding the labrum. The end result is the loss of cartilage in the shoulder joint within months. Unfortunately, the only option for a normal life is for the victim to undergo a shoulder replacement.