Tommy John Surgery

Tommy John surgery is surgery of the elbow joint, in which a torn ligament to the ulna is replaced with another string or a different band. The new tape will be mostly taken from the wrist, forearm or the hamstrings. Was named the operation after the baseball player Tommy John, who in 1974 underwent the first athlete this operation.

The surgeon Frank Jobe led the operation beforehand only to polio patients and patients with muscle damage and severed tendons in his hands through. So he gave the former pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers only a maximum of five percent chance to be back playing baseball after surgery. However, the operation of 25 September 1974, the subsequent healing occurred without any major complications. From 1976 to 1989, at the age of 46 years, John was able to continue his career without having to expose another game because of elbow discomfort. During this time he won more than 170 games for the Dodgers, the New York Yankees, the California Angels and the Oakland Athletics.

Today, the chances of recovery are about 93 %, the duration of the operation has been reduced from four hours to scarce half hours. The healing time until the next game is - similar to a cruciate ligament injury - usually one year.

Due to the exceptionally strong stress on the elbow bands when pitching in professional baseball, this injury and surgery is most common among professional baseball players. However, were in the U.S. in 2003 alone by James Andrews, one of the famous Tommy John - surgeons, 55 High School Pitcher surgery. Recently, however, also quarterbacks in American football have been successfully treated with it, including NFL player Jake Delhomme, Carson Palmer and Rob Johnson.

• Therapeutic procedures in orthopedics and trauma surgery
• Operative treatment procedures