Tommy John Surgery

Tommy John surgery is the replacement of the ulnar collateral ligament with a tendon from the forearm or another place in the body. The procedure was first done in 1974 on Tommy John a pitcher of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

At the time of the injury the predicted chance of recovery was 1 in 100, now the chance of full recovery is anywhere between 85 and 90 percent. This procedure is commonly done on professional baseball players, most notably pitcher, due to the amount of stress on the ligament caused by the action of throwing a baseball. The procedure however, does not give one the ability to throw harder as it is commonly believed. This misconception has led patients to begin requesting the surgery hoping to enhance their performance. Doctors credit this phenomenon to the fact that pitchers who have the surgery become more focused on their conditioning and are in better shape after the surgery. They also explain it by the fact that the UCL degrades over time, and the surgery allows them to preform at the level before the ligament started to degrade. The surgery does not provide any better performance than what can be acheived with a healthy ligament.

This surgery has saved the careers of hundreds of baseball players since it has been preformed. Some, most notably Chris Carpenter, have come back better than they were before. I am impressed that this procedure, experimental 35 years ago, is not only a common place in the sports world, but a very successful one at that. With all the advances in medicine that have taken place over in 35 years time, its amazing that a better procedure has not been developed. I wonder with all advances and discoveries to be made in sports medicine if a procedure will be developed that will replace the Tommy John procedure.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2003-07-28-cover-tommy-john_x.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_John_surgery

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