Often used for up to four days after surgery, pain pumps allow a patient to administer medication on an as-needed basis through a catheter to the specific part of the body experiencing pain, typically nerves or incised tissues. These devices e ffectively help avoid complications that might result from taking the pain medication intravenously, which introduces it into the circulatory system, or orally, which introduces it into the digestive system. Most importantly, pain pumps facilitate a more comfortable and faster recovery, shorten the length of a hospital stay and reduce the patient’s need for narcotics.
Pain pumps are no longer inserted directly into joints. Some recent well-publicized cases reported that patients who underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery and subsequently used pain pumps to deliver anesthetics like bupivacaine to the joint developed damage to the cartilage, producing a condition technically called glenohumeral chondrolysis.
Glenohumeral refers to the shoulder joint, and chondrolysis to the death of chondrocytes, the cells that compose cartilage. Normally, cartilage cushions the ends of the bones that form a joint, so if the cartilage cells die and the tissue degenerates, the result is the painful bone-on-bone friction of osteoarthritis. While physical therapy cannot “cure” this condition, we are often the rst to recognize the signs and refer the patient to a surgeon.
Even with a pain pump, a good rehabilitation program will hasten and enhance your recovery. After surgery, we can design a progressive program of physical therapy that will
- increase your range of motion
- build up your strength
- enable you to resume daily activities in a timely manner
To achieve a successful outcome after surgery, let us help you begin an exercise program that will return you to optimal function—pain-free, strong and flexible.
