What is an UCL Tear and Why Does it Happen Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) tears are most commonly the result of repetitive stress caused by overhead movements, such as those made during baseball pitching or javelin throwing. The sequelae is an overuse condition in which the ligament properties degrade over time with repetitive throwing.
Mechanisms of Injury
Overhead ActivitiesThe UCL is under the highest amount of stress during repetitive overhead activities, so chronic injuries are the most frequent. High-volume throwing athletes have an increased risk of UCL tear.
Acute Trauma: Chronic injuries are more frequent but acute ones can occur with sudden impacts or falls, causing immediate tears or ruptures.
Symptoms and Diagnosis
Common symptoms will be pain over the medial elbow, weakness and if obviously a pop at the time of injury. The diagnosis is usually clinical including a battery of physical exams such as the valgus stress test while imaging modalities might be deployed for confirmation.
Treatment Options
Management strategies: Rest and physical therapy to more invasive techniques such as Tommy John surgery for the most severe cases. Recovery is often graduated and may take several months before athletes are able to resume training at their previous levels.
Finally, the UCL tears are due to long term repetitive overhead stress in sport players particularly throwing athletes.UCL injury (ad) Knowledge of the processes responsible for these injuries is imperative to prevent and treat them appropriately.
