MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Kimberly-Clark subsidiary I-Flow filed a lawsuit against Kentucky surgeon Dr. Bruce Holladay for off-label use of a pain pump that allegedly resulted in injury to a patient, raising the spectre of a slippery slope of physicians held liable in patient injury lawsuits.
Holladay performed reconstructive surgery on a patient in 2007, implanting a pain pump in the patient’s shoulder. When the patient later complained of shoulder pain, he was diagnosed with chondrolysis, a condition in which continuous administration of certain anesthetics can result in the destruction of cartilage.