What is it about?
UCL Reconstruction or "Tommy John" surgery is a commonplace surgery in the overhead throwing athlete, most performed in baseball pitchers. The surgical treatment has evolved since first performed in 1974 and some surgeons have pushed to utilize cortical button suspensory fixation as this appears to be superior in biomechanical studies and may decrease the risk of intraoperative fracture. Our study is the first to provide safe landmarks and angles for cortical button suspensory fixation as intra-articular placement could result in poor outcomes.
Featured Image
Photo by Jose Francisco Morales on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Our findings define safe entry points and angles to decrease the risk of intraarticular penetration and fracture during UCL Reconstruction surgery with cortical button fixation. Both of which could create poor outcomes for the repetitive overhead throwing athlete.
Perspectives
It is our pleasure to publish this study minimizing a risk to this new surgical approach in the challenging, athletic population. With these safe parameters for deployment during UCL reconstruction, we have provided another safety metric during surgical treatment in the overhead throwing athlete.
Perry Hooper
Southern Orthopaedic Surgeons
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Establishing Safe Extra-articular Parameters for Cortical Button Distal Fixation During Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction, The American Journal of Sports Medicine, August 2019, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0363546519864718.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
