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"In an ideal world, of course, we would get 100 percent of the playersback to their pre-injury level or higher," says Steven B. Cohen, MD, assistantteam physician for the Philadelphia Phillies and director of Sports MedicineResearch at the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. "But the fact of thematter is at this elite level of the sport, the physical demands of throwinghave much higher requirements than the regular person on the street. Theaverage person who has shoulder or elbow surgery can return to their regularactivities. Throwing a baseball at the professional level puts a significantamount of stress on the shoulder and the elbow."
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Over a four-season period, Cohen and colleagues studied 44 players fromone professional baseball club (major league, AAA, AA and A) who underwent 50shoulder and elbow operations by a variety of surgeons. There were 27shoulder surgeries performed on 26 players and 23 elbow surgeries performed on21 players. A key finding of the study was that players returning after elbowsurgery were more likely to comeback to the same or higher playing level thanthose who had shoulder surgery. Thirty-five of the players were pitchers with43 percent returning to the same or higher playing level.
The researchers found that overall, only 20 of the 44 players (45 percent)returned to the same or higher level of professional baseball. Forballplayers at the major league, AAA, or AA level, the study found only 4 of22 (18 percent) were able to return to the same or higher level.
"As a surgeon, obviously these statistics were disappointing and somewhatlower than what we would like them to be," said Cohen. "This may give uscause, however, to look at how we evaluate and treat these injuries to thethrowing arm. Our goal is to get these elite athletes back to their premierpre-injury health. This is important both to the player who is making a livingoff his athletic ability and the organization that wants its players in topshape. We may need to examine if there is a way to 'fine-tune' theseprocedures to customize them for the demands of a professional baseballplayer."
The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) is a worldleader in sports medicine education, research, communication and fellowship,and includes national and international orthopaedic sports medicine leaders.The Society works closely with many other sports medicine specialists,including athletic trainers, physical therapists, family physicians, andothers to improve the identification, prevention, treatment, andrehabilitation of sports injuries. For more information, please contact AOSSMDirector of Communications, Lisa Weisenberger, at 847/292-4900 or email her [email protected]. You can also visit the AOSSM Web site athttp://www.sportsmed.org.
SOURCE American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
