Specialist's Advice for Injured Twins Pitching Prospect Kyle Gibson: Rehab, Not Surgery

TwinCities.com—August 23, 2011   

Top Twins pitching prospect Kyle Gibson was advised by a specialist Monday to continue rehabilitating a partially torn elbow ligament rather than have it surgically repaired. That approach can work, veteran pitcher Carl Pavano said, especially for a young player.

Pavano rehabbed through a ligament injury as a Montreal Expos prospect in the late 1990s and didn't have the ligament surgically replaced - a procedure commonly known as Tommy John surgery - until 2007.

Gibson, 23, visited Dr. David Altchek of Hospital for Special Surgery in New York on Monday for an evaluation of his right elbow injury, which was diagnosed as a flexor pronator muscle strain and partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament.

Altchek, who performs many high-profile ligament replacement surgeries, recommended that Gibson continue rehabbing and be re-evaluated after the initial phase of the rehab program.

Altchek performed Pavano's surgery on June 5, 2007, during his tumultuous four-year stint with the Yankees. 

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