Did UCL Surgery Work? Baseball Stats May Have the Answer

MedPage Today—April 24, 2015

MedPage Today reports that professional pitchers and other high performance athletes who repetitively throw overhand are more likely to undergo Tommy John surgery, which reconstructs the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) using a tendon from a patient’s forearm.

The problem is that UCL insufficiency isn't a "disability" in the typical sense of the word.

"For 98% of what you do in life, you don't even need an ulnar collateral ligament," said Joshua Dines, MD, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and shoulder surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City and assistant team physician for the New York Mets.

Read the full article at www.medpagetoday.com.