Wyoming: Injured Worker Unable to Show Second Shoulder Surgery Was “Reasonable and Necessary” to Treat Original Condition

Affirming a decision of a state trial court, the Supreme Court of Wyoming agreed that an injured worker failed to show that a second round of shoulder surgery was “reasonable and necessary,” in spite of the fact that during the second procedure, the worker’s surgeon discovered and repaired a large hole in the acromioclavicular joint where the previous procedure had been performed. The Court indicated that while the worker may have established a causal connection between the initial surgery and the hole in the fascia, he had not established that the repair to the hole was actually necessary. The court noted that the surgeon was unaware of the hole until he had completed the repair of the calcification in the worker’s shoulder and there was no actual evidence that the hole was causing the worker’s difficulties.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis 

See In re Claim of Price v. State ex rel. Dep’t of Workforce Servs., 2017 Wyo. LEXIS 16 (Feb. 16, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 131.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see