The Role of the Hand Surgery Consultant in the Care of the Football Athlete.

Purpose: Return-to-play safely focusing on care for professional athletes. Variability on when return-to-play is possible due to differences in dexterity requirements of player's position and upper extremity injuries. This study covers the importance of trust between players and healthcare providers in the incident of upper extremity injury and aspects of when return-to-play is favorable.

Traumatic Carpal Axial Instability in a Professional Football Player: A Case Report.

This is a case of traumatic carpal axial instability in a professional football player. Traumatic carpal axial instability characteristically involves longitudinal separation of the ulnar or radial distal carpal row along with intermetacarpal injury. Rarely, pancarpal ligament disruption occurs, as in this case.

Lateral antebrachial cutaneous nerve compression after traumatic rupture of the long head of the biceps: a case series.

Background: Lateral antebrachial cutaneous (LABC) nerve compression is a rare but debilitating injury. There are limited data on the association of LABC nerve compression and proximal biceps rupture. We theorized that because of distal migration, the biceps muscle and tendon cause compression on the nerve.

Anatomic reconstruction of thumb metacarpophalangeal joint ulnar collateral ligament using an interference screw docking technique.

Complete rupture of the ulnar collateral ligament injury of the thumb metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint can be a debilitating injury resulting in decreased grip and pinch strength. The spectrum of injury to this ligament varies from simple strain to complete rupture of both proper and accessory ligaments. Generally, this is a result of an abduction force transmitted across the thumb MCP joint.

Gymnastic wrist injuries.

During gymnastic activities, the wrist is exposed to many different types of stresses, including repetitive motion, high impact loading, axial compression, torsional forces, and distraction in varying degrees of ulnar or radial deviation and hyperextension. Many of these stresses are increased during upper extremity weight-bearing and predispose the wrist to high rates of injury during gymnastics. Distal radius stress injuries are the most common and most documented gymnastic wrist conditions.

Primary osteoarthritis of the elbow: lack of radiographic evidence for morphologic predisposition, results of operative debridement at intermediate follow-up, and basis for a new radiographic classification system.

This study evaluated whether or not a morphologic predisposition exists to the development of primary osteoarthritis and establishes a classification tool to predict outcome in surgical treatment of elbow osteoarthritis. Detailed radiographic morphologic analysis of the ulnotrochlear and radio-capitellar joints in 90 normal and 24 osteoarthritic elbows showed few differences. Based upon commonly demonstrated radiographic features of degenerative changes, joint space narrowing, and marginal osteophytes, a classification system for rating the severity of primary osteoarthritis of the elbow was developed and applied retrospectively classified the preoperative radiographs of 18 patients (21 elbows) who had undergone elbow debridement and capsular release through a lateral collateral ligament preserving approach.

Silicone implant arthroplasty in patients with idiopathic osteoarthritis of the metacarpophalangeal joint.

Purpose: The outcome of silicone metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint implant arthroplasty in the osteoarthritic patient population has not been well established. Typically patients with idiopathic osteoarthritis have no history of underlying systemic disease and may respond well to treatment with MCP joint implant arthroplasty. This study examined the efficacy of silicone MCP joint implant arthroplasty for patients with idiopathic osteoarthritis for whom nonsurgical treatment had failed.