Hunter Little 4th hr Rector When was the last time you thought about your ulnar collateral ligament? Have you ever thought about stretches you should do for your elbow and arm before throwing anything? How about what even makes your elbow work? These are things I never took into consideration before my injury. In 2011 I was thirteen years old. This is when I first hurt my elbow. I was thirteen and pitching for my competitive team. The reason for my first injury and the pain in my elbow was my growth plate in my elbow. The tendon in your elbow (Ulnar Collateral Ligament), connects to two locations and one of the those spots is your growth plate. I separated that plate. I went onto play my 2011 season, only to take three …show more content…
That was until April of 2015 that changed. On April 11th of 2015 my third personal game pitching was against bishop Kelley. I would only go out to throw two pitches and feel a “pull” in my arm. A sting and sharp pain followed on the next few pitches. I would go onto finish the inning and told my coaches and was pulled from the game. I would go to the doctor the next day and be told that I strained my UCL. I would then take three months off from throwing period. I would come back in three months and go back to pitching. I would only throw one or two innings here and there coming back off of my injury. I was in my fifth game pitching from three month leave. I went into relieve a game in the fourth inning. I would go onto throw about eight pitches when I felt the familiar “pull” in my arm. I would go to throw two more pitches and have the same sharp stinging pain to follow. I pulled myself from the game. I would go to the doctor and find out that I had torn my UCL almost completely in half, to the point where it would need to be reconstructed. I would then undergo a surgery called ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, also known as (Tommy John surgery). I will now take three months of physical therapy and have a nine month total recovery time. I am currently only two months
Tommy John surgery, or more well known as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, is a surgery in which a ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with a ligament from elsewhere in the body. This replacement ligament is usually taken from the forearm, hamstring, or foot of the patient. This ligament is needed for everyday things such as twisting a doorknob. This injury is usually seen in professional baseball pitchers because of the daily repetitive throwing and because of violent motions from throwing a baseball. RA Dickey was born without a UCL and pitches in the majors. Doctors still do not know how he can do this because you should not be able to do anything this way.
In conclusion, a torn UCL is very common in athletes in throwing sports, such as baseball. There are a lot of simple exercises and strategies you could follow to help prevent a UCL tear to happen and there are a lot of strategies to help you rehab if a tear were to
UCL reconstruction surgery has been around for a long time and it continues to evolve. Tommy John Surgery was once a likely career-ending injury for pitchers throughout all levels of the game, but now it has become very common and it is a minor setback in one’s baseball endeavor. Fleisig, Laughlin, Aune, and medical doctors explain how biomechanics are not affected when throwing again after surgery ( Fleisig, Laughlin, Aune, et. al., 2015), while Dodson, Thomas, Dines, and
Pitchers don’t see the struggle your arm is going through when they keep pitching through it. “"It really was a battle every time out. There was a string of games where I had to give some extra effort late.”” He was pitching through the pain. “As a pitcher in the big leagues you're dealing with minute aches all the time.” Your arm usually hurts when you pitch without a break. Pitchers should rest when their arms are giving them
The surgery was frist performed in 1974 by orthopedic surgen Dr. Frank Jobe, was named after the first baseball player to undergo this surgery; Tommy John was the major league pitcher whose record of 288 career victories ranks seventh all time. This procedure is made to help a person with UCL also known as ulnar collateral ligament also known as the elbow. The procedure is common among collegiate and professional athletes in several sport, but most in baesball. The procedure goes as follow, the patient’s arm is open up aroung the elbow. Holes to accommodate a new tendon are drilled in the ulna and humerus ones of the elbow. The doctor then gets a tendon such as the palmaris tendon from the forearm of the same or opposite elbow, the patellar tendon, or a cadeveric tendon. Which are ten woven in a figure eight pattern through the holes and anchored. The ulnar nevre is usually moved to prevent pain as scar tissue can appy pressure to the nerve.
The subject is a 25 year-old, right-handed, MLB pitcher who has played baseball since Little League. He sustained an injury to his right arm while throwing an overhand curveball during the fifth inning of the first Major League game of the season. Upon my reaching the mound, the pitcher was favoring the affected arm and in obvious pain. I asked him where the pain was located and how bad it was. He pointed to his right medial elbow, near the medial epicondyle, and said the pain was moderate and he did not feel he could continue to pitch in the game. Next, I asked him if the pain came suddenly or gradually. He said it was a sudden pain and felt a “pop” or “snapping” sound. I then asked the athlete if he
Ulnar collateral ligament tear (UCL) contains a sprain to inner elbow ligament. Once significant stress is placed upon the UCL, an injury occurs. However, two UCL injury treatments include icing and excluding throwing activates for six weeks. Icing reduces inflammation, whereas not throwing influences healing. In addition, injury prevention exercises include heavy dumbbell farmer walk, squishy ball squeezes, and dumbbell wrist curls. Heavy dumbbell farmer walks specify athlete to walk Five yards while holding dumbbells. Exercise is succeeded four days per week with three sets of five, progressing into weight increases. Squishy ball squeezes require athletes to grip squishy ball frequently contracting then releasing. Exercise is succeeding three
Common injuries that occur while pitching are elbow tendonitis, rotator cuff tendonitis, labral tears, dead arm, ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction or "Tommy John" surgery, and oblique strains. Elbow tendonitis is inflammation of some tendon around the elbow. Rotator cuff tendonitis is any problem affecting
(C) This reminds me of when I had to be out for about two weeks from basketball because of my knee. Then when I had to come back I was really nervous about accidentally hurting it again. "
The recent uprising of the UCL surgery is largely due to the overuse especially in youth baseball players. The continuous micro tears in the UCL without proper rest continue to break down the ligament until surgical repair is necessary. The beginning phase of the rehab usually lasts about 4-8 weeks with a gradual progression of increasing ROM, manage pain and swelling, and preventing atrophy. The next phase lasting through weeks 9-12 continues to increase ROM, improve strength in arm, shoulder, and core. The third part of the rehab progresses from week 13-20. Goals consist of increasing overall strength and endurance, achieve full ROM of elbow, and begin low level plyometric. ROM should be at full beginning around week 10 of the rehab. The
The game of baseball has been called America’s past time but recently the sport has had a drastic epidemic of elbow injuries. Tommy John surgery in the past was a rare occurrence in athletes. Now many athletes are falling to the injury and sitting out for a season or two recovering from the injury. Many sport experts are pondering how to help lower the injury rate that is becoming a commonality among baseball players. The impact of the diagnosis of Tommy John surgery has led to the investigations of its causes as well as preventions of the
ACL injuries used to be seen as career ending injuries 50 years ago, however, throughout the years with the advancement in technology aiding treatment and rehabilitation procedures. Yet they are still sever and take months to recover. This is because of the precise location of the ligament within the knee joint. Resulting in no blood clot formation within the joint as a consequence scar tissue will not form and the tissue will just be filled with uncontrolled blood leading to swelling an pain within the joint (ACL reconstruction Oxford university hospital, 2017) which is why it takes between 9 to 12 months for recovery. With an ACL injury, other injuries often follow, namely MCL injuries and meniscal lesions which in time would likely lead to the patient contracting osteoarthritis due to it being a degenerative disorder consequently resulting from the meniscal and
As I sat there and let the doctor examine my knee and diagnosis me with a “left knee sprain”. I started to cry. I already knew the outcome that I had a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). I tried to continue to play on it until one time I was playing in a tournament, and I went up to block a girls shot and landed on my
A painful memory that I will never forget is the day I broke my arm while playing a baseball game for Tuscarawas Central Catholic. Michael Ventura said, “The memory you have at ten is not the same as the memory of the same person that you will have at twenty, at fifty, at eighty.” As time passes, the memory will always stay in the back of my head. Many Major League Baseball Players who take a hit to the forearm likely fractures their arms because of the speed of the ball coming at them.
Hello All! Time is flying yet again, as we are already two weeks into this Fall Rotation. This week was a lot faster paced in baseball as the team gets closer to participating in inter-quad scrimmages. Also, this week as pretty neat as I got to observe a UCL procedure for one of our pitchers. Instead of the normal tear we are used to witnessing, his UCL was actually stripping. It all started over a year ago with an avulsion fracture of the sublime tubercle. For those unaware, don’t worry as was I, the sublime tubercle is a small protuberance on the medial aspect of the coronoid process of the ulna onto which the anterior band of the ulnar collateral ligament inserts. Therefore, this surgical procedure is quite different than Tommy John. The