Tommy John Surgery
Baseball players and fans call it Tommy John surgery, after the pitcher who was the first to have the surgery 29 years ago. By any designation, it is one of the major advancements in sports medicine in the last quarter century. Technically it is a ulnar collateral ligament replacements procedure.
Pitching overhand is a particularly stressful motion; the strain it puts on a player's joint is commonly injurious. Pitchers such as Kerry Wood, Matt Morris, John Smoltz, Mariano Rivera, Tom Gordon, and Eric Gagne all have a four inch scar on their pitching arms as evidence of this career saving surgery.
These players typically perform as well, if not better, after the operation and have stronger arms, with radar gun readings to match. "It felt so good when I came back, I said I recommend it to everybody ... regardless what your ligament looks like," Chicago White Sox reliever Billy Koch says jokingly. He blew out his elbow in his third professional appearance, in 1997. A torn elbow ligament once was a pitcher's sentence to the broadcast booth or the monthly autograph show at the local Holiday Inn. No longer.
Tommy John surgery--technically an ulnar collateral ligament replacement procedure--has saved the careers of hundreds of Major League players. It may one day make the Hall of Fame case for its inventor, surgeon Frank Jobe (who was Hollywood enough to trademark the name "Tommy John procedure"). Thirty years after Jobe invented this surgery, baseball players are still using it.
The elbow is a hinge joint, moving in only one dimension (flex or extend), making it relatively simple from an architectural and functional standpoint. The humerus bone in the upper arm connects to the two bones of the forearm by means of various connective tissues. For a pitcher, one of the most important of these connections is the unlar collaterial ligament (UCL). The UCL offers much of the stability that is necessary for the elbow to withstand the extreme stresses created by
Pitching overhand is a particularly stressful motion; the strain it puts on a player's joint is commonly injurious. Pitchers such as Kerry Wood, Matt Morris, John Smoltz, Mariano Rivera, Tom Gordon, and Eric Gagne all have a four inch scar on their pitching arms as evidence of this career saving surgery.
These players typically perform as well, if not better, after the operation and have stronger arms, with radar gun readings to match. "It felt so good when I came back, I said I recommend it to everybody ... regardless what your ligament looks like," Chicago White Sox reliever Billy Koch says jokingly. He blew out his elbow in his third professional appearance, in 1997. A torn elbow ligament once was a pitcher's sentence to the broadcast booth or the monthly autograph show at the local Holiday Inn. No longer.
Tommy John surgery--technically an ulnar collateral ligament replacement procedure--has saved the careers of hundreds of Major League players. It may one day make the Hall of Fame case for its inventor, surgeon Frank Jobe (who was Hollywood enough to trademark the name "Tommy John procedure"). Thirty years after Jobe invented this surgery, baseball players are still using it.
The elbow is a hinge joint, moving in only one dimension (flex or extend), making it relatively simple from an architectural and functional standpoint. The humerus bone in the upper arm connects to the two bones of the forearm by means of various connective tissues. For a pitcher, one of the most important of these connections is the unlar collaterial ligament (UCL). The UCL offers much of the stability that is necessary for the elbow to withstand the extreme stresses created by
Cited: 1. www.usatoday.com/sports/baseba///2003-07-28-cover-tommy-john_x.htm 2. http://espn.go.com/trainingroom/s/2000/0215/427112.html 3. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=3486 4. www.wired.com 5. http://bonsecourshamptonroads.greystone.net/images/ei_0153.jpg 6. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~anatomy/assets/surface/wrist-hand?surface3.gif