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Shoulder Pain Pump Recipient Says Cons Outweigh the Pros

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Winnsboro, LAWhen Shawn was in the military he sustained a shoulder injury; physical therapy didn't help and a VA surgeon recommended surgery. Back in 1996 the shoulder pain pump was a relatively new medical device; "This surgeon thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread," says Shawn, "but the surgeon who did my second surgery said he would never use a shoulder pain pump in the joint."

Shawn says he woke up in the recovery room with a shoulder pain pump. He'd never heard of it before and his doctor just said "it was something new." As Shawn now realizes, new isn't necessarily better. The pain in his shoulder and his range of motion got increasingly worse as time went on. A few years ago he had another shoulder injury but this time he saw a different surgeon.

"My second surgeon said that he could fix my second shoulder injury but I will always be in pain because there is so much lost cartilage," says Shawn. "He explained that it is impossible to go back in and fix the damage caused by this shoulder pain pump. Apparently there was so much deterioration of my cartilage, tendons and ligaments. 'You can't fix what isn't there,' he said.

"Right now I'm sitting here in a recliner after my second surgery and any movement of my shoulder bothers me. You name any anti-inflammatory drug and I've taken it—there's nothing I can take to ease the pain. The VA gave me a 20 percent disability rating; I'm not a small guy—I’m 6' 8" and 300 pounds—and this shoulder pain pump has done me in. There is stuff in my shoulder that is still messed up.

"The surgeon who performed my second operation is one of the most renowned orthopedic specialists around and he is an instructor at the University Hospital. I asked him if he was going to give me a pain pump this time. 'Nope,' he said. Instead he gave me something like an ice chest that looks like bubble wrap; it was similar to having an ice pack on your shoulder that pumped cold water, and that is how my pain was controlled. I wish my first surgeon had used this device.

"Knowing that I had a shoulder pump doesn't make me feel real good. First off I didn't know they were going to use this pain pump on me and when I woke up, it was in there. I wish I had some say in it. Then I started reading up on this pain pump and there was an ad on TV about how it eats away at your cartilage; it was like pumping battery acid into my shoulder joint. Sure, it numbed my shoulder at first but at what cost? Now all my cartilage is gone and the cons definitely outweigh the pros. Now, eleven years later, my shoulder has all but crippled me."

Unfortunately, Shawn's first surgeon was likely not aware that shoulder pain pumps were never approved by the FDA for joints, but they were marketed as "the greatest thing since sliced bread," as Shawn says, and doctors bought into the sales pitch by shoulder pain pump manufacturers.

Increasingly, doctors and orthopedic surgeons are refusing to use shoulder pain pumps. At an annual conference of the Arthroscopy Association of North America, five doctors and arthroscopy specialists found there was no benefit from the use of pain pumps compared with the use of regular painkillers. "We were unable to show a clinically detectable benefit in the use of bupivacaine infusion pumps for providing pain relief after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair," they concluded.

Since 2009, the FDA has required pain pump manufacturers to warn doctors about the potential for chondrolysis (devastating joint damage) that can result from the use of intra-articular shoulder pain pumps.

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