Shoulder Pain Pump Lawsuit Consolidation Petition Denied

In an order issued last week, the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation denied a petition to consolidate all federal lawsuits filed on behalf of individuals who developed shoulder chondrolysis after using a pain pump following arthroscopic shoulder surgery.

Over 30 lawsuits have been filed in various federal courts throughout the country against the manufacturers of infusion pain pumps and various anesthetic drugs, alleging that the devices caused the development of a painful and debilitating condition where the cartilage in the shoulder is destroyed.

In May 2008, the attorneys for several individuals who are pursuing a should pain pump lawsuit filed a petition to have all cases involving the development of shoulder chondrolysis from the pumps consolidated before one judge, as part of a coordinated process known as an MDL, or multidistrict litigation. It is common to see an MDL formed when there are multiple federal lawsuits involving common underlying facts.

A special body within the United States Federal Court System, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, has the power to transfer similar pending suits from multiple districts to a single judge in a single jurisdiction for pretrial proceedings. Following a hearing last month in San Francisco, the panel determined that centralization was not appropriate in the shoulder pain pump litigation, and would not serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses or further the interests of judicial economy.

“Although these personal injury actions have some commonality as to whether shoulder pain pumps and/or the anesthetic drugs used in those pumps cause glenohumeral chondrolysis, an indeterminate number of different pain pumps made by different manufacturers are at issue, as are different anesthetic drugs made by different pharmaceutical companies,” wrote Judge John G. Heyburn, II, chairman of the Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, in the order.

Shoulder chondrolysis, also known as post-arthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis or PAGCL, is a rare condition that involves the progressive loss of cartilage in the shoulder joint. Research has suggested that the intra-articular use of shoulder pumps to deliver a combination of medications to manage pain after arthroscopic surgery, could cause this painful and debilitating condition. The cartilage damage is permanent, resulting in severe limitations on range of motion and use of the shoulder. In many cases, individuals who develop PAGCL require a total shoulder replacement surgery.

At least 28 different corporations and medical providers are named as defendants in the various shoulder pain pump lawsuits filed in federal court, including Stryker Corp., I-Flow Corp., Smith & Nephew, Inc., DePuy, Inc., DJO, Inc., Breg, Inc. and AstraZeneca PLC, to name a few. At the July hearing where arguments were considered on the petition to consolidate, all of the defendants named in a shoulder chondrolysis lawsuit opposed the consolidation.