Case Study : Tommy John Surgery

Tommy John Surgery comes at a time when the athlete’s life is spiraling into complete chaos. Just as it stabilizes the elbow’s bones together it stabilizes the hopes and dreams of the athlete’s future. Without the invention of this surgery numerous people had their purpose renewed and the disorder cured.”Disorder, alas, is the natural order of things in the universe.”(RFW pg.420) Tommy John Surgery sorts out the turmoil.

This all begun in 2014, i was recovering from my first ACL tear. I would talk to my doctor about how my recovery was going so far, and he would always reply “your coming along well” but what he never told me was he was expecting it to tere again at any moment.

Epidemics of surgeries can vary with people being very influential towards them or disagreeing on what needs to be done in order to help the person it is affecting. Over the past decade a certain surgery has become more and more relevant to young kids and adults that play a certain sport. Americas greatest pastime what we now call baseball has resulted in some of the most historic injuries. Such as that will never be forgotten such as Tommy John, Miguel Sano, and Kerry Wood and last but no least Stephen Strasburg. Now why cant people understand that your body needs rest? Your body needs to heal or you will join the list of people who have had Tommy John surgery. It is not something to be proud of, but it is certainly proven to help and have a high success rate.

Ulnar collateral ligament injury is a type of elbow injury that develops from repeated overhand throwing movements (overuse). This motion places a lot of stress on the two strong bands of tissue (ligaments) that hold your elbow joint in place. The ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) is a main ligament located on the inside of your elbow. Over time, repetitive overhand throwing can damage the UCL.

The team doctor informed me, I would most likely have to get surgery on my UCL, more commonly known as Tommy John reconstructive surgery. The UCL is located on the inside of the elbow, below the bone. The injury happened when I was fielding a difficult ground ball up the middle, which is a very tough play to make as a second baseman. I had cleanly fielded the ground ball, and as I turned to throw in mid arm motion, I felt a pop in my right elbow. The pain in the elbow was such a sharp and stinging pain. I decided I was going to stay in the game because we were playing against the second strings at Union High School. As the game continued, another ground ball was hit in my direction and as I then proceed to throw the ball towards first base, and figured, I could not throw normal. Again just rest and rehab for 8

Baseball is America's pastime. Everyone in this country knows a person who plays the game and the struggles they face throughout their entire baseball endeavors. Baseball is an overhead throwing sport that requires countless amount of repetition in order to perfect the art of throwing a baseball with different spins and velocities. Because baseball has become a non-season based sport in this modern era, it has risen health risks to the elbows of athletes that play continuously. The Ulnar Collateral Ligament, commonly coined as the Tommy John Ligament, is the

Over the course of baseballs long existence it has been a very laid back sport with only minor injuries. But in the last decade or so the injuries have been popping up all over. Definitely the most common one being the tearing of the ucl tendon in the arm. This injury takes time to tear and it usually starts to hurt before the ligament actually snaps. “Most commonly, there is a gradual onset of elbow pain due to repetitive stresses on the ligament”(Hopkins Medicine). But there are cases where thee injury can be sudden and happen on one pitch. There have been more and more of these injuries but the biggest shock is the amount of young kids dealing with pain in their elbows. This is an effect of year round baseball, because the kids and teens are not getting their proper rest in between pitch outings. Also their coaches could be pushing them to pitch more innings and throw more pitches. But not only are young people getting these injuries older pros are also. There has been a substantial increase in

A torn elbow ligament was the most common cause of The Dead Arm Injury era, the 20th century. This was uncommon before this time. Long before then, because of the lack of research on the injury, this gave pitcher's a 1 in 100 chance of returning and being able to pitch. Until in 1974

Russell Carrington is a 25 year old right handed relief pitcher for the MLB team the Baltimore Orioles. Carrington has been playing baseball since he was seven years old and this was his third season in the Major Leagues. Carrington was at the mound and in the motion of throwing a fastball, when he felt a “pop” in his overhand motion. He dropped to his knees and clinched his right shoulder in pain. Athletic trainers came onto the field an upon examination Carrington stated his arm felt like it was “dead” and felt like it was “catching”. Carrington was seen by the team physician. She performed ROM exercises, strength, and stability tests on his shoulder and examined his neck and head to ensure pain wasn’t coming from a pinched nerve. She concluded that further testing and imaging was necessary. Carrington had an X-ray and MRI done on his shoulder and he was diagnosed with a type II SLAP (Superior Labrum Anterior and Posterior) lesion. He didn’t want surgery done because he would miss the remainder of the season and possibly the next, so doctors prescribed non-steroid anti-inflammatory medication and five months physical therapy to strengthen the shoulder capsule. After completion of physical therapy, the pain didn’t improve and arthroscopy surgery was recommended.

Tommy John surgery is a common procedure used to repair torn rotator cuffs. Named after a former MLB player who also suffered with the injury, Tommy John surgery involves replacing the torn ligament with a healthy ligament in another area of your body.

The UCL will not heal on its own so surgery is the only option to heal a torn UCL. The surgery is called Tommy John surgery, which is named after a former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who had the first surgery

In Drew Marcos presentation, were first introduced to one athlete, in particular, Tommy John, an American professional baseball (left-handed) pitcher, who permanently damaged his ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm, leading to a revolutionary surgical operation. known as Tommy John surgery. It replaced the ligament in the elbow of his pitching arm with a tendon from his right forearm. The surgery was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe in 1974. After the surgery, the odds were against John, since there was a 1 in 100 success rate for that operation. But, he took a season off to recover and worked with a kinesiologist, who taught him a completely different way to pitching, eliminating the chance of him hurting his knee and arm. Before his surgery he won 124 games after his surgery 164 games won, John continued to play for 14 more years, retiring in 1989. Marcos, went on to discuss scapular strength and positional impairments such as scapular dyskinesia, insufficient posterior tilt, excessive abduction and prominent inferior medial border, which are all factors that play a part in the inverted “W” pitching position; that Marcos believes, is one of the driving forces behind the some pitcher’s injuries and the Tommy

I interviewed Jimmy Johnson; he suffers from chronic pain from many years of work and hard labor. Jimmy was employed for 15 years at a factory that manufactures insulation; there he frequently lifted over 100 pound bags of material. After so much time had passed of heavy lifting Jimmy’s right shoulder tendons began to tear and fray terribly, which frequently happens to people who do hard labor over such a long period of time. Doctors performed surgery on Jimmy’s shoulder, at the age of 49 and left him with only ten percent of his arm and shoulder mobility and flexibility. The cause of his chronic pain is now due to the surgery and the tearing of his tendons in his shoulder: also, numerous other injuries he sustained over his lifetime. A time after his surgery he was prescribed Vicodin and today takes Oxycodone, which treats higher levels of pain than Vicodin. Without his medication of prescription pills Jimmy’s pain would be almost unbearable. He only takes the needed amount each day for his pain management and tries his hardest to not abuse the narcotic drugs like many do (Johnson).

For baseball players, it is essential to stay healthy. One of the reasons a player tends to focus on healing his body is that if a player sits out injured for too long, he may lose his starting position. Though this is always in the forefront of a player’s mind, the first thing he should think about is healing his body so that he can continue his career. The most common injury to baseball players is “tennis elbow”. Other injuries baseball players deal with are dislocated joints and broken bones. Though baseball may seem like a less injury-prone sport than soccer or football, it can have just as many injuries with life-changing implications as the hard-hitting sports.

The Mounties and horses under the Commissioner also experienced the same fate as the Force under Macleod; sickness and death of horses, mosquito’s bites, sickness of the Mounties, and loss of hay. Like Macleod, Surgeon John Kittson reported that he and the force, he went with thought it was reasonable to form a “crippled camp”. This he said was because they “were soon to enter an unknown country, uninhabited by the (for all we know), hostile Blackfeet, and the Sick, the Convalescent and the Weak would have been unnecessary encumbrance.” As stated by the Commissioner, “of 27 horses that have died since 1st August 1875, debility and injury to the system produced by want of feed may be considered to be a proximate cause of 17 deaths. The Commissioner