quote:Originally posted by MTH:
Shoulder MRI's are simply not that accurate because the shoulder is so hard to image. During his junior year of college my son developed a shoulder issue. The orthopedic's diagnosis, based on his symptomatology, was posterior labral fraying. An MRI was done in the doctor's office which the radiologist INTERPRETED as showing fraying/wear and tear in several areas. MRI's in doctors' offices are often low power. I insisted on a second MRI, which was INTERPRETED to show much less than the first one. Son gutted it out and had shoulder scoped during the summer. During surgery the doctor found the labral fraying he expected, plus some minor rotator cuff fraying. The rest of his shoulder was pretty much pristine. All of the rest of the artifacts/irregularities they THOUGHT they had seen on the MRIs proved to be nothing.
The orthopedic, who did a fellowship with Andrews, told us that probably every player on the team, especially the pitchers, had some degree of fraying/wear and tear in their shoulders. He also claimed that Andrews bases his diagnoses of labral problems much more on sympamatology than MRI findings.
MTH,
As I had mentioned son had an MRI when he signed and they told him it looked like a normal shoulder from a pitcher who had been pitching since 8,9. Showed fraying, wear and tear as well but the structure was solid and showed no tears or anything of concern.
The following spring son developed pain in shoulder area (around the pit area), another mri revealed nothing, had an injection. Mid summer he had arthoscopic procedure to look to see what was going on, nothing significant, had a clean up.
The following season, experienced the same issue, but this time he could barely lift arm, went to see Dave Alchek in NYC. He was diagnosed with cortacoid impingement, very hard to diagnose, this impingement was causing the fraying. Just like Andrews, he based his suspicions on the problem through symtoms not so much an MRI. Doc said years of pitching just wore down the area. Shaved bone.
Skylark,
You await the day that everyone has access to a cheap portable MRI for a "check" up? How does that eliminate injuries? It took 2 years and two fine doctors to finally come to a conclusion.
Dr. Andrews and others of his calibur who have all worked together would NEVER come out publicly and say that a pitcher should not be pitching at 8,9.
but I would bet in private they endorse coach pitch at that age.