Ulnar Collateral Ligament Research Paper

Gamekeeper's Thumb, also known as Skier's Thumb or UCL tear, is an injury to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) of the thumb. The UCL can become torn, damaged, or avulsed from the insertion point to the metacarpal-phalangeal joint of the thumb. This type of injury is common to skiers. This happens when the skier falls with an outstretched hand and the abducted thumb gets caught in the pole strap. This injury can also be seen in people with rheumatoid arthritis because of weakened ligaments. The injury can be caused by repetitive use where the UCL is gradually worn away over time. An ultrasound or MRI of the hand can look for the severity of soft tissue damage and an x-ray can be used to rule out possible fractures. The CPT code for

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.

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.

A torn elbow ligament is the most common area to have an injury. The locations were it happens is in the inside of the elbow joint.

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

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.

The ulnar collateral ligament is a structure that keeps the humerus and the ulna in a normal relationship. The most common cause of an injury to the UCL is repetitive stress to the elbow. Most commonly it is cause by repetitive throwing. You will most likely see this injury happen in throwing sports, such as baseball. The injury can start to happen over time or the ligament can pop from too much force.

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 Anterior Cruciate Ligament also known as the ACL is deemed the most commonly torn ligament in the knee and can result from both contact and noncontact injuries. Most Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries result from an extreme force on the lateral side of the person’s knee causing a valgus force which pushes the knee inward (Kisner & Colby, 2012, pp. 802-803). This injury to the side of the knee can also cause a “Terrible Triad” injury which also injures both the medial meniscus and the medial collateral ligament (Kisner & Colby, 2012, p. 803). Our textbook further states that “the most common noncontact mechanism is a rotational mechanism in which the tibia is externally rotated on the planted foot….this mechanism can account for as many as 78% of all ACL injuries” (Kisner & Colby, 2012, p. 803). If the person does not seek medical help with this injury they are susceptible to also injuring the remaining support ligaments as well. Patients usually present with joint effusion; possibly 25 degrees of flexion, joint swelling if blood vessels are involved, limited ROM, stress pain and instability along with quads avoidance gait patterns (Kisner & Colby, 2011, p. 208)

In the sports world the word ACL brings absolute horror and cringe with it. That’s because when an ACL tears it can be one of the most painful experiences an athlete can have, especially with the surgeries and recovery it brings with it. Along with that, the ACL is in the deep part of the middle of the knee, so most of the time when you damage your ACL you most likely have damaged something else. Women especially have to worry about the overall health of their knees as they have a 4.8% greater chance of tearing their ACL than men (Musgrave). ACL tears are one of the worst injuries in the sports world and in order to recover to full health it takes time, patience, and a hard-work ethic.

I am an avid body builder and I am always pushing my body to its limits in the gym in order to make certain areas of my body grow to achieve an end goal. My knee has been slowing me down for a while now, and it has been an ongoing struggle to deal with. A couple months back, I was doing a movement in the gym to help my legs grow, called the squat. I was trying to squat two hundred and twenty-five pounds for about six reps. I did not know that I hurt myself until the next day. But it turns out I tore my lateral collateral ligament or LCL. The LCL is the ligament to the outer side of the knee which connects your femur to your fibula.

The ACL is the most common knee ligament to get injured. The ACL injury causes from taking a hard hit on

The X-ray technique is a stress X-ray using the Telos Stress Device placing a valgus stress to the elbow to objectively evaluate medial joint laxity. The patient is perpendicular to the device, the elbow is flexed to 25° and the upper arm is held in external rotation with approximately 65° of abduction with the wrist in supination (Smith, Hackel, Goitz, Bouffard, & Nelson, 2011). With a counterforce applied to the radial side of the elbow, this device allows the operator to provide a defined amount of force to the joint on the ulnar side (Smith, et al., 2011). The increased distance or widening in the medial joint space is a sign that an ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injury is present. According to Smith et al. (2011) the stress radiograph