Alex Kirilloff To Miss 2017 After Tommy John Surgery

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo !

I am wondering how many people avoid the surgery by rehabbing?  The Twins always seem to go for rehab for a long time, then always go with the surgery after several months.  

I posted this link in the other thread as well, but it is helpful in answering this question. The short answer is (at least according to this study), most.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2325967114S00021

It isn't just the Twins that take this approach- that is the approach taken by the vast majority of teams/colleges.

Bad luck for sure.

 

One of these times when the player chooses the most conservative approach of rehabbing, over the course of 7 months, it would be great if that actually worked.

 

I understand why they do it that way, I just am not seeing much luck with rehabbing.  And, it does set the player back on a longer clock to full recovery.

 

I would bet at some point in the very near future, players and doctors will move ahead with preventive TJ surgeries, at a young age, once a kid commits to baseball.

As a surgeon, I hope I never reach the point in my career that I am doing preventative TJ surgery. I will hang up my scrubs the day that happens.

Rhett Bollinger wrote that he had a platelet injection before the R&R.  It makes more sense then.  Still practically unheard of injury for High School OFs...

There is some mixed data on PRP injections- some studies showing it helps, others showing no difference. A mentor of mine once told me when I asked him if he thought PRP works for this problem "No idea. But sometimes you have to do SOMETHING to them just to get them to listen to you and actually rehab the right way." I've always remembered that.

Agree 100% on the rarity in HS OF's. 

Also, here is a link to a power point presentation from Chris Ahmad (Yankees team doc) that discusses non surgical treatment in some additional detail.

https://foreonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/9-2.pdf

Sample size for non-pitchers returning to play who were not treated with the operation:  1.

 

Might be conclusive enough for pitchers (SS = 29) but just one position player...

 

Also what they do not study is the relapse % of players who were operated upon vs not.

So your contention is that a position player is at higher risk to fail non surgical treatment than a pitcher? My suspicion would be the opposite- that since a position player places less stress on the elbow than a pitcher (proven in biomechanics studies), they are more likely to be successful with non surgical treatment. You can't just conjure the non-pitchers to study. You have to study what is available and extrapolate that data as best you can to other groups. 

From the information that is on the internet, Alex Kirilloff did pitch in high school.  Maybe that is a contributing factor.

http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/alex-kirilloff/4jHvRvTsEeKZ5AAmVebBJg/default.htm