Findings support UCL repair with internal brace in select overhead throwing athletes

SAN DIEGO — Most overhead throwing athletes who underwent ulnar collateral ligament repair with internal brace augmentation returned to play, according to results presented here.

Christopher A. Looze

“UCL repair with internal brace augmentation appears to have similar return-to-play rate as UCL reconstruction in carefully selected patients and it is able to get patients back with a short rehab time,” Christopher A. Looze, MD, said in his presentation at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting.

Looze and colleagues followed 66 overhead throwing athletes who underwent UCL repair with internal brace augmentation for at least 1 year and collected whether they returned to play, time of return to play and level of return to play.

“At that time, we also administered a [Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic] KJOC survey and we documented any complications,” Looze said.

Looze noted they had an 88% follow-up rate, with most patients identified as high school-aged pitchers.

“In terms of return to play, 54 of 56 [players] who wanted to return to the same level of play were able to do so for a return-to-play rate of 96%,” Looze said.

Patients had an average time to return to play of 6.1 months, with 65% of athletes returning at fewer than 6 months and an average KJOC functional score of 90.2, according to Looze. He added there were three complications and one retear.

“There was no statistically significant difference between subgroups with the respective KJOC score or time to return to play based on whether or not they had the ulnar nerve transposition, whether or not the tear was proximal or distal, or partial and complete,” Looze said. – by Casey Tingle

Reference:

Dugas JR, et al. Abstract 128. Presented at: American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Annual Meeting; July 5-8, 2018; San Diego.

Disclosure: Looze reports he is an employee of Amgen.