What Is Your “Tommy John” Ligament?
You’ve probably heard of a few odd or unusual terms that refer to various medical conditions, body parts, or specific injuries. One of the most common of these terms, particularly heard in sports circles, is used to describe the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) of the elbow, also known as the “Tommy John Ligament.”
The UCL, or Tommy John ligament, is the main ligament stabilizing the inner part of the elbow. It attaches the end of the arm bone to one of the forearm bones. The UCL is often torn or stretched by activities causing repetitive strain on the ligament – particularly throwing or tennis. Stretching of the ligament can cause subtle instability in the elbow leading to pain with repetitive throwing. Often the ligament needs to be reconstructed with a tendon graft to restore its strength and allow return to pain-free throwing or overhead sports, a procedure that has become common in baseball pitchers.
Where Did The Name Tommy John Come From?
Tommy John was major league baseball pitcher for the L.A. Dodgers and New York Yankees over a twenty-year career and was the first person to undergo the procedure that now carries his name. John began to experience some serious ligament discomfort and pitching problems around 1974. Dr. Frank Jobe, a noted orthopaedic surgeon who was team physician for the L.A. Dodgers at that time diagnosed John with tearing of the UCL as the cause of his pitching problems and devised a new surgical procedure to reconstruct the ligament – a radical and controversial treatment at the time. Back then, it was believed that a major league pitcher could never return to pitching in the big leagues after having surgery. Faced with few options and the prospect of having to retire from baseball, John placed his trust in Dr. Jobe and underwent the procedure. He then went on to return to the major leagues and had a successful Hall of Fame carreer. Based on his success, the procedure became known as the “Tommy John” procedure and is now commonly performed on baseball pitchers with painful elbows.
Misconceptions About the “Tommy John” Procedure
Based on John’s experience and the success of others who have had the procedure over the years there has become a misconception that undergoing the procedure can actually improve pitching performance over that of having a normal elbow. Many players and coaches came to believe that the procedure increased pitching velocity and accuracy and that players were actually “better” after undergoing the procedure. There is no medical or biomechanical evidence to support this. However, most sports medicine and athletic trainers believe that the post-operative rehab and strengthening that players undergo after the surgery is what often times can lead to their improved performance. This has lead to more research and focus on prevent exercises and training regimens to improve performance in throwing and to help prevent the need for a thrower to undergo a “Tommy John” procedure.
Read this: Advair Diskus
What’s Taking place i am new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve discovered It absolutely useful and it has aided me out loads. I am hoping to contribute & help other customers like its helped me. Great job.|
I think other website proprietors should take this website as an model, very clean and fantastic user genial style and design, as well as the content. You are an expert in this topic!
Wonderful site. Lots of useful info here. I¡¦m sending it to some buddies ans also sharing in delicious. And certainly, thank you for your sweat!
My spouse and i have been really happy when Ervin managed to carry out his reports out of the ideas he grabbed from your very own weblog. It’s not at all simplistic to simply always be offering tricks that other people have been selling. We really figure out we now have the blog owner to thank for that. The main explanations you made, the easy blog navigation, the friendships your site make it possible to instill – it is all wonderful, and it’s leading our son in addition to the family understand this article is excellent, which is certainly pretty fundamental. Thanks for the whole thing!
Wow, amazing blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your web site is magnificent, let alone the content!|
Everything is very open with a really clear clarification of the challenges. It was definitely informative. Your website is very useful. Thanks for sharing!
Asking questions are in fact nice thing if you are not understanding something totally, except this post gives fastidious understanding yet.|
Im grateful for the blog post.Much thanks again. Will read on…
Wow, this piece of writing is nice, my sister is analyzing these kinds of things, thus I am going to tell her.|
It’s an amazing post in favor of all the internet visitors; they will get advantage from it I am sure.|
This site was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something which helped me. Kudos!|
Hello to all, the contents existing at this website are truly amazing for people experience, well, keep up the nice work fellows.|
There is certainly a lot to learn about this subject. I love all of the points you made.
It’s actually very complicated in this busy life to listen news on TV, therefore I just use internet for that purpose, and get the most up-to-date information.|
There’s noticeably a bundle to podiscsd know about this. I assume you made certain nice factors in options also.
It’s an amazing post designed for all the online visitors; they will get benefit from it I am sure.|
Hello my loved one! I wish to say that this post is amazing, nice written and come with approximately all important infos. I¡¦d like to peer extra posts like this .
Incredible! This blog looks exactly like my old one! It’s on a completely different topic but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Great choice of colors!|
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!|
A fascinating discussion is worth comment. I believe that you need to publish more about this issue, it may not be a taboo matter but usually people don’t discuss such issues. To the next! Best wishes!!|