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Tommy John Research Paper

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Tommy John Surgery 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. Tommy John injury is very common …show more content…

The surgeon may suggest doing an arthroscopy, just to make sure it’s not arthritis causing the pain. An arthroscopy is where an incision is made in your elbow and a small camera is inserted to see what is happening inside your elbow. However, an arthroscopy is not always necessary. The surgery begins with an incision on the medial (inside) side of the elbow. Then the tendon from another part of the patient’s body is inserted into the elbow. The new tendon is usually found in the person’s forearm, hamstring, knee, or foot. The procedure of replacing one tendon with another tendon from the same body is known as autograft. In order for the surgeon to see the problem they must split the flexor muscle and then reattach them after the procedure is over. The surgeon will drill two holes in the ulna and three holes at the end of the humerus. The tendon is threaded through the first two holes then through the triangular shaped holes at the end of the humerus. After the tendon is secured, sutures are placed at each end of the tendon. The surgeon uses the sutures to pull and bring the new tendon to the right amount of tightness. Then the sutures are tied together to hold the tendon in place. After the surgeon has completed all of these steps, the insertion is stitched back up. (EOrthopod). Once the surgical procedure is finished, the doctor will explain the recovery

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