Medical News Today: Comeback To A Pre-injury Level Disappointing For Professional Baseball Players

Put your glove away, Sandy. It’s over.

Only 45 percent of baseball players were able to return to the game at the same or higher level after shoulder or elbow surgery, according to new research released during the 2008 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Specialty Day at The Moscone Center.

“In an ideal world, of course, we would get 100 percent of the players back to their pre-injury level or higher,” says Steven B. Cohen, MD, assistant team physician for the Philadelphia Phillies and director of Sports Medicine Research at the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. “But the fact of the matter is at this elite level of the sport, the physical demands of throwing have much higher requirements than the regular person on the street. The average person who has shoulder or elbow surgery can return to their regular activities. Throwing a baseball at the professional level puts a significant amount of stress on the shoulder and the elbow.”

...“As a surgeon, obviously these statistics were disappointing and somewhat lower than what we would like them to be,” said Cohen. “This may give us cause, however, to look at how we evaluate and treat these injuries to the throwing arm. Our goal is to get these elite athletes back to their premier pre-injury health. This is important both to the player who is making a living off his athletic ability and the organization that wants its players in top shape. We may need to examine if there is a way to ‘fine-tune’ these procedures to customize them for the demands of a professional baseball player.”