Leading Sports Medicine expert says the demands of pitchers evolved, so has the way orthopedic surgeons think about Tommy John surgery.
Article Link: Dr. Neal ElAttrache: Tommy John concept ‘hasn’t changed’ much over last 50 years (beckersspine.com)
In September 1974, Frank Jobe, MD, performed the first Tommy John surgery, which is now one of the most common procedures among baseball players. And in 2024, one of Dr. Jobe’s students, Neal ElAttrache, MD, is looking ahead to the procedure’s next evolutions.
Tommy John surgery, which is used to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament, has saved the careers of several MLB athletes. Today, more than 25% of MLB pitchers have had or need Tommy John surgery, Dr. ElAttrache said.
“The operation itself has changed in small detailed ways,” Dr. ElAttrache told Becker’s. “But the overall concept and philosophy primarily has not changed. It’s remarkable that over 50 years, the concept really hasn’t changed very much.”
Another thing that has changed is how baseball pitchers throw, and it’s something Dr. ElAttrache and his peers are watching closely.
“The demands of the patients that we’re doing it on have changed,” he said. “Some of the ways that a few of us have enhanced the operation is in response to the increasing demands and forces and the violent nature of what’s happening to a greater degree to that ligament in the athletes that we’re dealing with.”
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