THURSDAY, Nov. 10, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Medtronic Personal Therapy Manager (PTM), allowing people with chronic pain to use Medtronic's SynchroMed II drug pump to manually deliver supplemental doses of pain medication, the company said.
Previously, patients using the pump -- implanted just under the skin of the lower abdomen -- relied on constant doses of medication that had been pre-set by a physician.
The PTM is about the size of a cell phone. After a manual dose is delivered, the new system imposes a lockout interval to prevent overdose, Medtronic said in a prepared statement.
Chronic pain, defined as pain lasting more than six months that is not relieved by medical or surgical care, affects up to 70 million Americans, Medtronic said.
More information
Visit Medtronic's Web site
to learn more about its Personal Therapy Manager.
