2008 Woodie Awards
Two UD pitchers discuss the effects of Tommy John surgery
by Elan Ronen
Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: Sports
Senior Brent Gaphardt was pitching the best game of his life last year in a home match up against Vermont. Everything was going perfectly. Gaphardt already had seven strikeouts with two outs in the top of the third.
One pitch changed everything.
"I got right to the release point and I felt a pulling sensation," he said. "Then I felt a shooting pain from my elbow up to my fingertips." A little later he felt a tingling which was replaced by a burning sensation, he said. Gaphardt, with a swollen forearm, was taken off the mound and put into the team's training room for examination.
"You could feel something wasn't right," he said.
The next day he was taken to get an MRI and was told by doctors he needed Tommy John surgery.
While the surgery is popularly called Tommy John surgery by baseball fans, the surgery is known to doctors as Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction, or UCL surgery. The operation was named after former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John after he received the operation in 1974. He returned successfully to the Major Leagues and pitched 15 years before retiring.
Between 2002 and 2003, 75 pitchers who appeared in the Major Leagues received UCL surgery, according to an article published July 28, 2003, in USA Today. Kerry Wood, Adam Eaton, Randy Wolf and A.J. Burnett are just a few of the big leaguers who have undergone the one-hour surgery.
The UCL, located at the inside of the elbow joint, is responsible for resisting the extreme forces generated from overhead throwing activities such as pitching, throwing a javelin and serving a tennis ball, according to a 2002 medical study published in Medscape, an online medical journal. UCL surgery involves the replacement of the elbow ligament with a tendon from the forearm, hamstring, knee or foot of the patient. In Gaphardt's surgery, the tendon from a cadaver was used.
Dr. Andrew Rokito, co-author of the 2002 study, said the surgery is successful in approximately 90% of cases but it does not guarantee a return to a pre-injury level.
One pitch changed everything.
"I got right to the release point and I felt a pulling sensation," he said. "Then I felt a shooting pain from my elbow up to my fingertips." A little later he felt a tingling which was replaced by a burning sensation, he said. Gaphardt, with a swollen forearm, was taken off the mound and put into the team's training room for examination.
"You could feel something wasn't right," he said.
The next day he was taken to get an MRI and was told by doctors he needed Tommy John surgery.
While the surgery is popularly called Tommy John surgery by baseball fans, the surgery is known to doctors as Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction, or UCL surgery. The operation was named after former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John after he received the operation in 1974. He returned successfully to the Major Leagues and pitched 15 years before retiring.
Between 2002 and 2003, 75 pitchers who appeared in the Major Leagues received UCL surgery, according to an article published July 28, 2003, in USA Today. Kerry Wood, Adam Eaton, Randy Wolf and A.J. Burnett are just a few of the big leaguers who have undergone the one-hour surgery.
The UCL, located at the inside of the elbow joint, is responsible for resisting the extreme forces generated from overhead throwing activities such as pitching, throwing a javelin and serving a tennis ball, according to a 2002 medical study published in Medscape, an online medical journal. UCL surgery involves the replacement of the elbow ligament with a tendon from the forearm, hamstring, knee or foot of the patient. In Gaphardt's surgery, the tendon from a cadaver was used.
Dr. Andrew Rokito, co-author of the 2002 study, said the surgery is successful in approximately 90% of cases but it does not guarantee a return to a pre-injury level.
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