Ulnar Collateral Ligament Tear (UCL)

I have played soccer continuously from age 3 to 18. Four years ago, I tore my right ACL. I endured surgery and 6 months of physical therapy, then almost 2 years later to the day, I was told the same fate again. I had torn the ACL in my left knee this time. Why did this awful injury have to strike me twice? Once again, I endured the months of rehabilitation and soon returned to the field. Having to go through this twice as a teen taught me that perseverance and determination will help you achieve what you want in life. Even though I spent almost 2 years away from the field, I still made every effort to be there for my teammates. Some days I didn’t want to get out of bed because of the pain, I didn’t want to go to therapy, and I wanted to quit.

To any one August 9, 2014 is just a blurr. To me it is the day where everything in my life changed. Tweet. My team gets a free kick about twenty-five to thirty yards away from the goal. Anyone who know’s me know’s that I am not a player who stands around and watches. At that moment in time I did not think anything could go wrong except that we would not score. I have heard stories of people who have torn their anterior cruciate ligament but never did I think that I would be telling these stories.

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.

There are different techniques that repair a torn ACL. The popular method for surgeons is the patellar tendon graft procedure. This type of ACL replacement uses the middle third of the person’s own patellar tendon and replacing the damage tendon with it. The advantages are that the fixation is very strong and the patellar tendon replacing

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.

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.

Many major league and teenage pitchers today are requiring Tommy John surgery more than before. Tommy John surgery is named after the pitcher Tommy John, who was the first to receive this surgery. This particular arm injury is located in the elbow when the Ulnar Collateral Ligament tears. During the surgery, the UCL is reconstructed with another ligament from one’s body or a donor. Many people argue that this injury is a result of overuse/overthrowing, not giving the arm enough rest. Also, people argue that it is a result of improper throwing techniques. Both of those arguments are accurate, as they can both result in Tommy John surgery. Today in baseball, more and more people are getting arm injuries and needing Tommy

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)

Leg injuries in dogs are one of the most commonly experienced problems. Among this, the frequent injury is a cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) tear which is much similar to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that occur in humans. The cranial cruciate ligament (otherwise, the anterior cruciate ligament) is one among the several ligaments in the knee that becomes the easy victim.

A torn ACL is one of the most serious and common knee injuries. Many aspects play a role in the treatment and rehabilitation of this injury. This paper will discuss the anatomy of the knee, describe a torn ACL, and the rehabilitation.

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