This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Modified Jobe and docking techniques yielded similar outcomes for UCL injury treatment
CHICAGO — Patients with ulnar collateral ligament injury in the elbow treated with a modified Jobe technique had outcomes similar to patients treated with the docking technique, according to results presented at the Arthroscopy Association of North America Annual Meeting.
Justin W. Arner , MD, and colleagues collected demographics, sport, level of sport, position, the need for future surgery on the shoulder or elbow, postoperative outcomes of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic (KJOC) shoulder and elbow score and return to play of 26 patients with UCL injury treated with the modified Jobe technique and 25 patients treated with the docking technique. Results showed no differences in age or follow-up between the two groups.
“There was no difference in regard to sport with most, as you would imagine, being baseball players and pitchers making the biggest proportion of that group with the remainder being javelin throwers,” Arner said in his presentation.
He also noted the groups had no differences with level of sport, with most patients being college pitchers, as well as no differences in KJOC scores, return to play and future shoulder and elbow surgery.
“This is the first direct comparison with midterm follow-up at 6.7 years with a single surgeon and, as I mentioned, I think that this longer-term follow-up we have greater standard deviations and low overall scores,” Arner said. “I think, overall, ... that both are good surgical options and the most important thing we believe is having one technique that you feel comfortable with and that you do well.” – by Casey Tingle
Reference:
Arner JW, et al. Paper 55. Presented at: Arthroscopy Association of North America Annual Meeting; April 26-28, 2018; Chicago.
Disclosure: Arner reports no relevant financial disclosures.