Tommy John Injury

Dr. Frank Jobe developed a procedure for pitcher Tommy John (who the surgery was named after). With vivid research of the ligaments inside the medial elbow he developed a way to make the elbow back to normal strength or in some cases much more stronger. This surgery consisted of the new tendon being implanted and woven in a figure-eight pattern through holes

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.

Snap, crackle, and pop. Those aren't the sound of rice crispies in milk; it’s the sound a pitcher hears after tearing his ulnar collateral ligament. This injury used to be career ending but is now almost standard. This has saved countless dreams for many baseball players of not just playing baseball but to have complete function of their right arm. Today, sports fans and athletes hear the term Tommy John surgery and don't flinch. There are currently 29 active ballplayers in the major leagues who have already have had Tommy John surgery. That includes the Chicago White Sox'

Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, also known as Tommy John surgery, is a surgical procedure where the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow is replaced with a tendon from the patient’s body or a tendon is donated by an outside party. This surgery is named after a former baseball pitcher, Tommy John, from the 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers. Tommy John surgery is a common injury for all athletes, but most commonly baseball or softball players and especially pitchers. This injury has precautionary measures, symptoms, a surgery process, and a recovery procedure. If an athlete is a baseball or softball pitcher they need to be aware of Tommy John injury and ways to prevent this type of injury.

We practiced proper biomechanics to help me pitch better. Not only throwing properly is important but icing our arms after is important for relieving the pain after a game. The purpose of the bio mechanical pitching evaluation is to reduce the risk of injury or re-injury by addressing the efficiency of a pitcher's mechanics. The pitching computer program is then used to calculate the kinematics (body angles, joint velocities, and timing mechanisms) and kinetics (joint forces and torques). ( www.asmi.org/bioeval.php?page=bio_eval ).

Due to the results of this survey, I find pitching a very relevant subject when dealing with elbow and shoulder injuries. 1464 packets were sent out to 96 institutions and, out of the 629 consent forms and questionnaires mailed back, results have shown that 73 percent of injuries that resulted in surgery are sustained by pitchers. 71.7 percent of these pitchers played for universities in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I, 12.4% were in DII, 14% in DIII, and 1.9% were in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The average age of these pitchers was 20.1 - 21.6 years old.

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

Many injuries can occur in the elbow including ulnar collateral ligament valgus extension overload. This injury is common to occur in overhead throwing athletes, and needs to be taken into consideration as a diagnosis when there is medial pain distal to the medial epicondyle in the elbow. To fully understand the injury of UCL valgus overload it is important to understand the anatomy of the elbow, the etiology of UCL valgus overload, the evaluation process, how to treat the injury, and other injuries that need to be ruled

Glenohumeral joint kinematics change in an adaptive manner to chronic overhead activity, seen in multiple sports especially in baseball, volleyball, handball, and basketball(16-18). This involves all tissues of the shoulder – bone, capsule, and muscle(19). During normal human development the humeral head rotates from a retroverted position at birth to an anteverted position as an adult. However, when individuals begin overhead throwing at an early age, extrinsic forces on the humerus cause the humeral head to remain in relative retroversion compared to that of the non-dominant arm. This, combined with tightness of the posteroinferior capsule from chronic reactive scarring, and with scapular

With an ever increasing number of people becoming involved with athletic activities, there is an increasing number of injuries occurring which can be devastating for the individual. Most of the injuries that affect athletes occur in one of four structures in the human body: bones, muscles, tendons, or ligaments. Because ligaments attach bone to bone and play a major part in providing stability for joints, the major stabilizing ligament in the knee, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), assists in performing everyday actions of the human body including sitting, standing, walking, running, dancing, and participating in other sports. The injury that specifically affects this ligament is very serious and always

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

Rauh and others—a Doctor of Physical Therapy at San Diego State University—on pitchers’ arms during a certain period of time during the season, he found that only two of the twelve suffered a pitching injury. This may seem like fairly good odds but if the injury is preventable then why should this happen in the first place. Keep in mind that this study was also done just for games, and doesn’t take into account practices. Some girls may have thrown hundreds of pitches before even going out and throwing a game. This could really effect the data if practices were taken into account.

One of the major of concerns among sport teams, coaches and athletes is injury. Numerous injuries occur each year caused by sport, resulting in decreased physical activity and work time lost in addition to substantial medical costs (Murphy, Connolly & Beynnon, 2003, p. 13). The most of the injuries are reported in the ankle and knee joint in the some sports such as football, hockey, lacrosse and basketball (Khabaz et al., 2014, p. 176). Entrancing force from different directions to the knee joint can cause some injuries in it such as injury or tear of Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL). Rupture in ACL is very prevalent and treatment of it has too cost and time (Khabaz et al., 2014, p. 176). It is obtained that statistical results had shown that 80 to 250 thousand of ACL injuries occur yearly that the most of them have 15 to 25 years old (Garrick & Requa, 2001, p. 2). Reconstruction of this ligament is

The Hand and Wrist Institute. (n.d.). What is the most common hand injury for basketball players? Retrieved from

Elbow supports provide warmth and support for less acute elbow injuries, while elbow pads and elbow wraps protect the elbow from impact during contact sports such as hockey. Sports elbow pads help minimize damage from impact sports like volleyball, football and motocross. To avoid injuries such as golfer’s elbow, the athlete can strengthen the forearm muscles by squeezing and old tennis ball for 5 minutes at a time, do wrist curls with a lightweight dumbbell, and do reverse wrist curls using a lightweight dumbbell. In tennis, tennis elbow is another type of tendon inflammation. In order to avoid injuries, the athlete can do exercises to strengthen your forearm, switch to a lightweight racket and increase the grip size, and wear a splint on