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‘Batter’s Shoulder’: Can Athletes Return to Play at the Same Level After Operative Treatment?

  • Symposium: Injuries in Overhead Athletes
  • Published:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®

Abstract

Background

Batter’s shoulder has been defined as posterior subluxation of the lead shoulder during the baseball swing. However, it is unclear whether or how frequently patients may return to play after treatment of this uncommon condition.

Questions/purposes

We therefore determined the rate of return to play after operative treatment for Batter’s shoulder and whether ROM was restored.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 14 baseball players diagnosed with Batter’s shoulder. Four played professionally, six were in college, and four were in varsity high school. The average age was 20.3 years (range, 16–33 years). All had physical examinations and MRI findings consistent with posterior labral tears involving the lead shoulder. Treatment involved arthroscopic posterior labral repair (n = 10), débridement (n = 2), or rehabilitation (n = 2). The minimum followup was 18 months (average, 2.8 years; range, 18–64 months).

Results

Eleven of 12 surgically treated patients returned to their previous level of batting at an average of 5.9 months after surgery. The one patient who was unable to return to play also had an osteochondral lesion of the glenoid identified at surgery. Players typically returned to hitting off a tee at 3 months and to facing live pitching at 6 months postoperatively. All patients regained full internal and external ROM as compared with preoperative data.

Conclusions

Batter’s shoulder is an uncommon form of posterior instability in hitters affecting their lead shoulder. Most athletes are able to return to play at the same level after arthroscopic treatment of posterior capsulolabral lesions.

Level of Evidence

Level IV, case series. See Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Drs David M. Dines and Ralph A. Gambradella for allowing us to include their patients in this study. We thank Dr Scott Kingston for his help in reviewing the radiographic studies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, 1250 Waters Place, 11th Floor, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

    Tony Wanich MD

  2. Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA

    Joshua Dines MD & David Dines MD

  3. Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Ralph A. Gambardella MD & Lewis A. Yocum MD

Authors
  1. Tony Wanich MD
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  2. Joshua Dines MD
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  3. David Dines MD
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  4. Ralph A. Gambardella MD
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  5. Lewis A. Yocum MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tony Wanich MD.

Additional information

Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research editors and board members are on file with the publication and can be viewed on request.

Each author certifies that his or her institution approved or waived approval for the reporting of this investigation and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research.

This study was conducted at the Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, Los Angeles, CA, USA and the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA.

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Wanich, T., Dines, J., Dines, D. et al. ‘Batter’s Shoulder’: Can Athletes Return to Play at the Same Level After Operative Treatment?. Clin Orthop Relat Res 470, 1565–1570 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-012-2264-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-012-2264-0

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