Elbow Surgery Disturbing Trend Among Teens
Reported July 15, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Elbows, beware. More young baseball players are walking in Tommy Johns footsteps by damaging one of their most important ligaments.
In a recent study, researchers found 83 percent of athletes who had Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery were able to return to the same or better level of play following the operation. However, the study authors found an increase in young athletes receiving the surgery troubling.
The reality is that this surgery is successful and thats good, study co-author E. Lyle Cain, M.D., fellowship director for the American Sports Medicine Institute, Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center, was quoted as saying. But a disturbing trend of younger kids needing the surgery is troubling. This should be a wake-up call to parents and coaches that specialization in baseball where kids dont get adequate time off is very dangerous.
Researchers followed up on the condition and recovery of 743 patients who had received Tommy John surgery. Of the patients, 94.5 percent were baseball players. Results showed 83 percent of patients returned to the same level of play or higher, and the average recovery time from surgery to full competition was 11.6 months.
Tommy John surgery is a procedure in which a damaged ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), an elbow ligament, is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body. The surgery is named for Hall of Fame pitcher Tommy John, the first person to undergo the operation.
SOURCE: Presented at the 2008 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, July 10-13