Dr. Schulz explains throwing arm nerve injury to Tigers’ young star.
Link to Article: MLB doctor explains when Detroit Tigers’ Parker Meadows could return from nerve issue
Detroit Tigers center fielder Parker Meadows suffered the injury on a ball hit to right-center field during the first game of spring training. He tracked it down, fielded it cleanly and executed a spin-and-throw to fire the ball back into the infield. On the throw, he felt a tweak in his biceps — first pain, then tingling, then numbness. After multiple MRIs, he was diagnosed with a right upper arm nerve issue. The pain is gone, and the tingling has subsided, but he still feels numbness on the top of his forearm.
There isn’t a timetable for Meadows’ return from the injury.
Dr. Brian Schulz — an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Orthopedics in Los Angeles and the team physician for MLB’s Los Angeles Angels and the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks — didn’t hesitate to pinpoint the likely nerve responsible for sidelining Meadows.
“It sounds like it’s probably his musculocutaneous nerve,” said Schulz, who has worked for the Angels since November 2016 and the Ducks since September 2014. “That’s the nerve that innervates the biceps and then also provides the sensory for the proximal forearm.”
The nerve — whether it’s the musculocutaneous or something else — has forced the Tigers and Meadows into wait-and-see mode, as it hasn’t been functioning for the past week and needs to reactivate before Meadows can return to baseball activities.
The timeline for Meadows to return from the right upper arm nerve issue depends on when the nerve wakes up. The problem is there isn’t an immediate or guaranteed method to stimulate it, which is why nobody knows when Meadows will play again. Meanwhile, the reactivation timeline for the nerve depends on the amount of inflammation and the individual.
It’s similar to hitting your funny bone.
“Sometimes, that hurts for a while,” Schulz said, referencing the ulnar nerve — referred to as the funny bone — to help explain the uncertainty surrounding Meadows’ nerve issue. “Sometimes, it hurts really quick, you get a jolt and it goes away. Everybody is going to be different in that aspect.”
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