Injuries in Overhead Athletes: Editorial Comment

Excerpt

While baseball has been played for more than 100 years, it was not until the middle of the 20th century that Dr. Bennett began writing about the unique injuries experienced by these athletes [2‐4]. (In this issue, we have republished Bennett’s article from 1947 [10.​1007/​s11999-012-2335-2], and in 2008, we republished his article from 1959 [5].) In the 1970s and 1980s, Drs. Frank Jobe [6‐8] and James Andrews [1, 9] began to specialize in the treatment of throwers and dedicated a substantial amount of time to improving the understanding of the mechanics of throwing and how those mechanics translated to the classic injuries seen. Elbow ulnar collateral ligament injuries, which at one time were career ending for pitchers, are now treated with surgical reconstruction that gets athletes back to their previous level of play more than 80% of the time [10]. The lay media suggest more than 10% of current major league baseball players have undergone ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction. The same can be said about superior labral anterior-posterior lesions, which are now treated relatively easily with arthroscopic repair. …