A recent study has linked the mechanics of major league baseball pitchers' throwing motion to the risk of elbow injuries, the results of which were presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine annual meeting. The researchers, including Kevin Wilk, DPT, of the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Ala., studied 296 Major League Baseball pitchers from 2005 to 2012.
The study found:
• Pitchers that have a total range of motion deficit of more than five degrees in their dominant shoulder are 2.3 times more likely to suffer an injury.
• Pitchers that have a total range of motion deficit of more than five in shoulder flexion of the dominant shoulder are 2.8 times more likely to suffer an injury.
• The 50 elbow injuries identified in this study resulted in an average of 51 days on the disabled list.
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