Spencer Frey, “Biomechanical Assessment of the Tommy John Injury in Baseball Pitchers”
Mentor: Jacob Rammer, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering & Applied Science (College of)
Poster #8
As major league pitchers continue to throw harder and longer each game, the chance for injury increase significantly. Over the past couple of years, the injury to the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) has risen sharply. In our study we will be looking solely at pitchers across many levels of competition. This injury in pitchers normally results in a reconstructive surgery or more commonly called Tommy John surgery. This surgery is named after the major league baseball pitcher Tommy John who got the surgery in 1974. Throughout our study we are hoping to find common symptoms and predictors of the damage to the UCL. Along with this we hope to find ways to prevent this injury, whether it be braces or sleeves that the pitcher can wear when pitching. As of right now, it is illegal for pitchers to wear compression sleeves due to it being considered a “distraction” to the batter. Finally, our aim is to help the recovery process of this surgery. Currently it takes around an entire season, approximately 28 weeks (not including playoffs), to recover properly from the surgery. Even if our study was able to reduce the recovery time, it would help pitchers assist their team in the crucial time of playoff pushes. Overall, our study aims to help with the prevention, detection, and reduction to recovery time for the Tommy John surgery.