This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
MLB pitchers with evolving UCL damage may be at risk for disabled list, surgery
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
CHICAGO — Major League Baseball pitchers with ulnar collateral ligament heterogeneity, posterior medial impingement and humeral-sided partial tears may be at risk for future placement on the disabled list, according to results presented here.
“Pre-signing elbow MRIs can be valuable to MLB teams and specifically when you see evidence of evolving UCL damage, this may predict future [disabled list] DL placement and/or surgery,” Nikhil N. Verma, MD, said in his presentation at the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Annual Meeting.
Verma and colleagues reviewed all major league pitchers who underwent routine pre-signing MRI of their pitching elbow between 2008 and 2016.
“We used three blinded reviewers, two orthopedic surgeons and one [musculoskeletal] MSK radiologist, and a publicly available database was then reviewed to determine if patients subsequently entered the DL or underwent surgery,” Verma said. “We compared an injured group to an uninjured group.”
Overall, 11 players underwent surgery; the majority were UCL reconstructions, according to Verma. He added players who were placed on the disabled list or who were at surgical risk had heterogeneous signal of the UCL, humeral-sided partial tearing of the UCL and posteromedial impingement on pre-injury MRI.
“DL placement time was an average of 123 days,” Verma said. “This was only related to elbow injuries, so we excluded non-elbow-related events and pitchers were placed on the DL an average of 1.25 times over the course of the study.” – by Casey Tingle
Reference:
Garcia GH, et al. Paper 10. Presented at: American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Annual Meeting; Oct. 12-14, 2018; Chicago.
Disclosure: Verma reports he is a paid consultant for Arthrex Inc., Minivasive and Orthospace; receives research support from Arthrex Inc., Arthrosurface, DJ Orthopaedics, Ossur, Smith & Nephew, Athletico, ConMed, Linvatec, Minomed and Mitek; receives stock or stock options from Cymedica, Minivasive and Omeros; is on the editorial or governing board for SLACK Incorporated; receives IP royalties from Smith & Nephew; and receives publishing royalties, financial or material support from Vindico Medical-Orthopedics Hyperguide.