Injuries of the overhead athlete are complex in they are unique from many other athletic movements. The overhead throwing motion requires the coordinated firing of nearly all major muscle groups in the body to generate significant rotational forces. This also requires activation of multiple smaller muscle groups to provide stability to the shoulder and elbow region. In addition to baseball pitchers, football quarterbacks, softball players, volleyball and tennis athletes all use this same movement pattern and thus incur similar injuries, typically to the shoulder and elbow. Many of these may be either prevented or rehabbed for safe return to competition, while some may require surgery. Common injuries seen amongst this group of athletes are listed below.
- Batter’s shoulder
- SLAP Tears
- Impingement
- Little Leaguer’s Shoulder
- Capsular Tears
- Rotator Cuff Tendon Tears
- Latissimus Doris Injuries
- Ulnar Collateral Ligament Tears
- Elbow Impingement
- Elbow OCD Lesions
- Olecranon Stress Fractures
- Flexor Tendon Tears
- Little Leaguer’s Elbow
