Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

A 35-year-old man came in saying his shoulder became dislocated when he passed out from his sugar going too low. Besides diabetes, he had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which causes very loose joints, among other things. He said he had suffered from dislocations like this many times in the past and told us exactly the dose of narcotics it would take to relieve his pain in order to get his shoulder back into joint.

We gave him the amount of pain medicine he asked for but were then not able to get the joint back in place, even after multiple tries by me and by the orthopedist I called to help me when I had been unsuccessful.

We gave him more and more medicine until he finally fell sound asleep at which time, the shoulder slid right into place. It was noted while he was unconscious that his shoulder was so loose, it could just slide in and out of place with minimal pressure. We put it in place and applied a shoulder immobilizer.

When he woke and called for more pain medicine, the shoulder was out again and it became clear he could move it in and out of socket at will. He had been holding his joint out of socket and feigning his pain in order to get narcotics.