“I remember walking up to the batter’s box and, for the first time, feeling confident,” Apgar said. “My legs weren’t shaking. I was standing there thinking, ‘I’m about to hit the crap out of this ball!’”

Apgar grounded out in her first at-bat, but the outcome was beside the point. The moment represented something far more meaningful than a result in the scorebook.

“I feel like my teammates now,” she said.

Read the full article at mlb.com.

Irolla is building a prosthetic for Apgar with a gel liner and a hook extension that is designed to fit around the bat and provide a more secure attachment. Doctors used some of the bones in Apgar’s left leg and foot to help strengthen her arm when she was a kid, so HSS also is creating custom foot orthotics for her with built-in rigid plates.

“She’s very open to trying new things. She just wants to perform at the highest level and everything that she can do to get there,” Irolla said. “It’s really nice to have somebody be that open and creative and motivated.”

Apgar has no feeling in her nub. During one visit with Irolla, she tried on a prosthetic that mimicked the sensation of touch.

“It was the first time that I had held a bat and it felt like I was holding it with two hands. So I started tearing up,” she said. “It was such a mind-blowing feeling.”

Read the full article at apnews.com.

In honor of May as National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, the Amazin’ Mets Foundation and HSS continued the Mets on the Move initiative, stepping up to the plate to teach Queens students the importance of staying active. The program brings interactive workout days to elementary schools across the borough, combining fun with lessons on health and wellness.

As part of the effort, HSS developed a curriculum that helps students learn the ins and outs of the human body and the fundamentals of safe movement. 

Read the full article at qchron.com.

Recovery timelines can be harder to pinpoint due to the nature of arthroscopic surgery and loose bodies. Unlike a UCL reconstruction surgery, there’s a wider range of potential actions, according to Dr. Josh Dines from the Hospital for Special Surgery.

“You’re not always treating the same pathology,” said Dr. Dines. “You might be repairing things, or you might be trying to stimulate growth. Others are a cleanup; you’re not trying to get anything to heal.

“With an elbow scope, there’s a bunch of different things that you’re doing. Some people are back in less than two months. Others are five months.”

Read the full article at mlb.com.

Hernandez underwent a four-hour operation to repair a bulging disc that was causing severe nerve damage on his right side.  

Read the full article at nypost.com. 

Dr. Butler discussed risk of injury and how to prevent, potential signs of injury, treatment methods, and recovery strategies in baseball for athletes of all levels.

Listen to the episode here. 

He was the Mets head team physician from 1991 to 2001 and medical director from 2005 to '24, physician of the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1999 to 2003, and North American medical director of the ATP Tour. Dr. Altchek was co-chief of HSS's sports medicine and shoulder service from 2005 to '14.

Read the full article at ESPN.com. 

Additional coverage: 

• The New York Times
• AP News
• NY Post 
• Becker's Spine Review Article #1
• Becker's Spine Review Article #2

Sabrina M. Strickland, MD, sports medicine surgeon at HSS, said Casas would likely be in a brace for six weeks and unable to run for 5-6 months.

“This is a pretty devastating injury,” Dr. Strickland said. “It’s not a 100-percent recovery rate like tearing a meniscus.”

Read the full article at bostonglobe.com.

Dr. Fu explained that Robles is at a slightly higher risk for recurring shoulder issues now, and he added that he wouldn't be "surprised" to see Robles get surgery to address the labrum tear in the offseason.

Read the full article and listen to the podcast at SI.com. 

Read the full article at ilmessaggero.it.

“There are multiple different ways to treat cartilage injuries athletes have,” Dr. Nwachukwu said. “In some cases, surgeons will do a cleanup and cartilage debridement.  This typically results in a faster return to the sport and athletes can sometimes return to the sport within 6 to 8 weeks." 

“Based on the expected timeline for the return to the sport, it is probable that a cartilage restoration or repair procedure is being performed. In these cases, the goal is for a more definitive and long-lasting solution to cartilage issues by restoring viable cartilage to areas where there is a cartilage defect.  In these cases, the initial part of the recovery requires for the cartilage to be incorporated into the patient’s own tissue.  This process itself can take several months.  Once there has been good cartilage incorporation, then physical therapy is required to restore good functional and kinematic strength in order to prevent any future cartilage damage,” Dr. Nwachukwu continued.

Read the full article at sportstalkatl.com.

The 26-year-old likely will not return in 2024 post-surgery, which will cost both the player and organization meaningful games down the stretch.

"The majority of thumb fractures do not require surgery," said John Dowdle, MD, hand and upper extremity surgeon at HSS. "When surgery is indicated, there is typically greater fracture displacement, instability, or involvement of the joint surface of the bone. Surgery allows accurate fracture alignment and fixation, so the bone heals in proper position which minimizes the risk of post-traumatic arthritis and deformity.

“Thumb fractures treated surgically typically take six weeks to heal before resuming normal activities. Sometimes a protective splint is needed for high-risk activities for a bit longer. Occasionally there is some mild stiffness after healing, but it rarely interferes with activities including sports and he should certainly be ready for spring training,” Dr. Dowdle continued. 

Read the full article at si.com. 

Additional coverage: 

MSN.com.

Yardbarker.com. 

Strider received an InternalBrace™ for his revision in lieu of the standard UCL repair process. Theodore A. Blaine, MD, sports medicine physician at HSS explains what this means for Strider and how the InternalBrace™ surgery is different from the standard "Tommy John" UCL reconstruction. 

“The decision to perform a UCL reconstruction ("Tommy John" surgery) or a UCL repair (with or without an internal brace) or both is based on many factors,” Dr. Blaine explained, with “each of these weighed to determine the best options for each individual.” It’s a significant list of factors, as well. “The age of the player, the location of the injury to the UCL, the desired activity level of the athlete moving forward, the quality of the tissue, and any prior elbow injury history are all factors that must be considered.”

Read the full article at si.com. 

"The oblique muscles are important to generating speed during a swing, so if the muscle is injured or they are having pain, the player will not be able to swing as effectively," explained Dr. Wang. "Even once pain has improved, you still have to be cautious with how quickly the athlete returns because there is always a risk of re-injury. After an injury, the oblique muscle needs enough time to heal and rehabilitate to handle the large amount of load they see during a swing or throw. As with any muscle injury, if you progress and load the muscle too quickly after injury, even if pain is better, you risk re-injuring the area."

Read the full article at SI.com. 

Read the full article at MLB.com. 

“The baseball throwing motion is probably unnatural and stressful motion you can do to the elbow. Especially that ulnar collateral ligament," said Dr. Carr.

“There are sports that don't require as strong as a UCL. Unfortunately, baseball is one of them where you have to have robust, strong UCL, or the body can't hold up to the stresses of throwing 90 plus miles an hour,” explained Dr. Carr. 

When it comes to Tommy John Surgery, “What we are trying to do is restore a strong ligament to the inside of the elbow. Typically, with the classic Tommy John Surgery, we take a tendon from elsewhere. So if there is an extra tendon in the wrist or we take a hamstring tendon and create a new ligament for the elbow,” said Dr. Carr. 

“Teaching pitchers how to pitch and not necessarily just go for velocity is important. Really strengthening the shoulder and elbow is important. A lot of pitchers try to use weighted baseballs to increase velocity. That has been shown to increase the risk of injury, so focusing more on mechanics using your lower extremities, trying to make sure your elbow is supported throughout your mechanics is important. Keeping a strong shoulder and elbow to support the ligaments is important. Those things have been shod to help reduce the risk of injuries, but we still haven't found that magic key, but hopefully in the next few years, we will have more information there,” explained Dr. Carr. 

Listen to the podcast at podcasts.apple.com. 

UCL injuries often require medical intervention, and for baseball players, usually what’s known as Tommy John surgery, and that would keep him off the mound for at least a year, with no guarantee of a full recovery. He will soon be a free agent, and the injury might cost him tens of millions of dollars, if not much more. 

Even a young, healthy arm is taxed to an unfathomable degree. “There’s long-standing evidence that a fastball at ninety-four miles per hour gets close to the maximum load a normal UCL can withstand,” said Dr. Altchek.

Read the full article at newyorker.com. 

“If it was just a repair, the typical timeline would be six or eight months for a pitcher, and that would be during the 2024 season,” said Dr. Dines. “The fact that they’re saying the 2025 season is sort of a 16- or 18-month recovery, and that speaks more to a full Tommy John reconstruction using a graft from somewhere to make a new ligament, even if you’re repairing whatever native ligament he had.”

One particular phrase in the statement suggested that Ohtani didn’t have a mere repair, though.

“When you say that you’ve reinforced it with viable tissue, almost everybody would agree that that is not just suture or an internal brace,” Dr. Dines said. “That would be tissue, meaning a graft from somewhere else.”

Read the full article at ocregister.com. A subscription is required to access.

David W. Altchek, MD, co-chief emeritus of the HSS Sports Medicine Institute discusses additional procedures that may be done to fix a UCL tear.

Dr. Altchek explained that “revision reconstructions versus repairs, if the rest of the ligament is in good shape,” would be among the possible options for procedures to address tears at the lower end of the ligament.

“A revision is anytime you bring someone back to the operating room that’s already had Tommy John surgery and doing anything to the ligament again is a revision,” Dr. Altchek explained. “The question is, when you do a revision are you just going to repair the tear or are you going to redo the reconstruction?

“Repairing means you usually put some kind of anchor in and sew the tissue back to the bone assuming that the rest of the tissue looks good," said Dr. Altchek. 

Read the full article at latimes.com. 

Can UCL tears be prevented? “That’s an enormous area of debate,” said Dr. Altchek.

“There’s a direct correlation between the velocity you throw and the incidence of UCL tears,” Dr. Altchek said. “So a particular player throwing 100 mph puts them in the high-risk category, in my opinion. What adds to the high-risk category can be throwing weighted balls. I understand that throwing weighted balls increases your velocity, but they also, in my opinion, increase your risk of injuring your UCL.”

Dr. Altchek discusses the success rate of players returning from Tommy John Surgery. “It works,” he said. “Done correctly, people can come back at the same level.”

For patients seeking to come back after more than one Tommy John surgery, however, the chances of returning at the same level begins to decrease,  Dr. Altchek said.

“Once you start getting out there, that number drops in half,” explained Dr. Altchek. “So three Tommy Johns, you’re fighting to get back.”

Read the full article at latimes.com.

"It says a lot about Judge's superior training, his focus, and dedication to be able to come back as fast as he did," said Dr. Positano.

“There's a tremendous amount of stamina and running and pressure that goes on that foot when running. That's the real concern here. When he is able to run the bases and when he is able to field,” continued Dr. Positano. 

“As long as he stays focused, and in the offseason does the right conditioning and rehabilitation, he should be 100 percent next year.” 

“The fact this man is even hitting baseballs is quite remarkable. But people have to appreciate the nature of this injury. This is going to take a significant amount of time and people don't realize how important feet are until they have an injury. Not rehabilitating him properly can have an effect on his long- term career. That's what they should be focused on right now," said Dr. Positano.

This segment aired on New York 1 on July 31st. 

“After looking at what happened with his toe, he made some damage to the ligaments that stabilize that big toe, which is responsible for propulsion, power, catapulting, etc. It will affect all aspects of his game,” explained Dr. Positano. 

"You have to assume this will have an effect on his ability to play defense. It is an injury that has to be dealt with in a very delicate way," said Dr. Positano. 

“I think the best way to handle this injury is do it in a conservative way. Get the joint to heal, get it to become stable again, and of course use an appliance. You make a special orthotic which is something that goes up to the top part of the big toe that stabilizes it.” added Dr.  Positano. 

Listen to the episode at podcasts.apple.com. 

Listen to the podcast at omny.fm. 

Baseball continues to be stricken with their nightmare epidemic: elbow injuries. Elbow and shoulder injuries have increased 44% from just a year ago, according to Baseball Prospectus research.  

“There have been a lot of studies done and looked at variables about the ulnar ligament injuries,’’ said Dr. Altchek, “but the only issue that clearly stands out is velocity. Guys throwing harder will have higher incidents of injuries that ligament. Throwing harder really seems to make a big difference. 

“The second thing is there’s a lot of debate over using weighted balls in workouts. Throwing those does increase velocity, but at what cost? If it’s not done effectively, it does increase incidents and injuries to the UCL,’’ he added.  

Read the full article at USAtoday.com. 

“Warming up is an important ingredient in improving performance and preventing injury,” noted Dr. Gulotta. “Most veteran Mets players have a pregame or workout routine that involves some element of cardio, and then a muscle activation program that ‘warms’ up those muscles that will be required to perform.”

If you’ve been enjoying the off season a little too much, you may have found that being sedentary has decreased your flexibility, and this can lead to injury sooner rather than later. “Flexibility is important to prevent injury and to increase performance,” explained Dr. Gulotta. “However, it is equally important to ensure the muscles around the joint are strong enough to support that range of motion. Having the strength to control a joint throughout its entire range of motion is what we call ‘owning that motion.’ Often, adolescent baseball players will have a lot of flexibility, but they do not have the core strength to control that flexibility," he added.

Read the full article at muscleandfitness.com. 

Díaz suffered a complete tear of his patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating a win during the World Baseball Classic. 

Read the full article at beckersspine.com. 

Michelle G. Carlson, MD, hand and upper extremity surgeon at HSS, performed the surgery to remove the original screws and replaced them with a central screw.

Read the full article at sandiegouniontribune.com. 

Read the full tweet thread at Twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR.

Read the full article at Seattletimes.com.

Read the full article at APnews.com.

Read the full article at Mlb.com.

Dr. Carr cited that soft tissue injuries are the most common during the football preseason, such as hamstring strains, calf muscle strains or oblique muscle strains. “The injuries can be related to a lot of factors: hydration, conditioning and overall strength and endurance as the players continue to build that back up,” he noted.

To avoid soft tissue injuries in the football offseason, Dr. Carr recommended appropriate conditioning prior to training camp. “Most players will take extended time off to recover at the end of the football season…and it’s important to take an extended time leading into training camp to build up muscle strength, endurance and flexibility and get acclimated to the heat. All those things need to occur for a football player to report at their maximum fitness and minimize risk of injury regardless of level – middle school, high school, college and professional.”

Dr. Carr discussed the evolution of baseball and how he has adjusted management approaches for professional players. “We have to manage workload to prevent injury, but when it does occur we do everything we can to get them as back as fast and as safely as we can without risk of re-injury,” he said.

Dr. Carr explained how HSS Florida is serving the West Palm community. “We are a comprehensive place for caring for the community, professional athletes and athletes of all levels. If you find yourself sidelined by an injury we want to get you back in the game and want to do it better than anyone else,” he concluded.

The segment aired on September 2, 2021.

Sports Talk ATL spoke to Mark C. Drakos, MD, foot and ankle surgeon at HSS, who did not treat Soroka, but provided commentary on the recovery for this type of injury.

“This is not normal. There seems to be more to the story than they are letting on. The second time around, the results are not as good,” said Dr. Drakos. The typical recovery time for a re-tear is 1 year, he continued.

Dr. Drakos added, “Odds of a re-tear after 1 is 1%. After 2 tears would likely be higher, but this data is unknown. For a pitcher, it isn’t as critical as a basketball player (in which it can be career-ending injury 40% of the time), but it is possible that he can’t pitch again, especially if it’s his push-off foot.”

Read the full article at Sportstalkatl.com. 

Additional coverage: 

• Sportstalkatl.com
• Yardbarker.com
• Yardbarker.com

Read the full article at NYdailynews.com.

Some players worry this change in policy may contribute to an increase in injuries, specifically Tampa Bay Rays’ pitcher Tyler Glasnow, who was recently diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL).

Dr. Altchek has performed around 1,500 Tommy John operations since 1988, and said this theory is plausible due to the sudden and major adjustment. He noted, “I’d rather have them use the sticky stuff and figure this out in the offseason.”

Dr. Altchek encouraged the MLB to explore alternative options for player health and safety. He said, “We already have an epidemic of elbow injuries. Tyler Glasnow sent a warning shot over the league. A pitcher of his level – saying that he made whatever the sudden changes were, grip pressure or something else – and then immediately developing an elbow problem, is scary. We have a few too many strikeouts, who cares?”

Read the full article at NYDailyNews.com.

To what degree the start-stop-start-stop schedule of 2020 will have on knee and elbow ligaments this season is to be determined. It’s something teams spend the winter researching and trying to prepare for. But without a similar event to look back on, it was a lot of guesswork. “The usual cadence of training was disrupted,” said Dr. Fealy. “It seems like there are more sprains and strains, but it’s too early to officially say that. We’re seeing a lot of oblique and hamstring strains but haven’t seen MCL strains increase. There’s no playbook for this.”

Dr. Fealy referred to what happened last season as “de-training.” Team doctors and athletic trainers were split on how best to handle it. Initially, all teams instructed their pitchers to remain on a regular schedule. But as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened, some teams cut way back on throwing programs. “How best to protect arms is something that’s always evolving,” noted Dr. Fealy. “These are finely tuned athletes across the board and the demands on them are hard to maintain.” He added, “For pitchers especially, this is new. Their cadence is off. Everybody I speak to on the medical side of this is watching to see what happens.”

Read the full article at Bostonglobe.com. This article also appeared in print on April 25, 2021.

Fox Nation spoke with Bryan T. Kelly, MD, MBA, surgeon-in-chief and Medical Director at HSS, who operated on both of Hensley’s hips.

Read the full article at Foxnews.com.

Read the full article at NYdailynews.com.

Becoming the first female Head Team Physician in franchise history, Dr. McElheny will oversee the day-to-day operations of the team's medical department and play an integral role in keeping players in peak physical condition. Previously, she served as the Mets’ Non-Operative Medical Director for the past two years.

Read the full press release at MLB.com/mets.

Additional coverage: Beckersspine.com and Beckerspine.com.

Read the full article at APnews.com.

Dr. Carr noted most throwing injuries are the result of overuse, suggesting athletes should only play on one team at a time. Players should also take a minimum of 3-4 months off from throwing every year to allow their bodies to heal.

According to Dr. Carr, shoulder or elbow pain is never normal, and players should not try to “throw through” the pain. Some soreness the following day can happen, however pain while throwing is not typical. If pain persists despite adequate time off, Dr. Carr advised to seek further evaluation.

Additionally, players should avoid unsafe training and throwing programs. Dr. Carr explained many programs designed to increase velocity use extreme methods that place dangerous stress on the arm. Safe pitching mechanics should never be compromised for velocity.

Furthermore, athletes should avoid specializing in one position at a young age. Dr. Carr cited playing a variety of positions builds different skills and can prevent overuse injuries from excessive pitching.

This article appeared in the print edition on March 14, 2021.

Read the full article at APnews.com.

Additional coverage: ESPN.com, Newsday.com. The article also appeared in print on February 14, 2021.

Drs. DiFiori (who is the director of sports medicine for the NBA), McElheny (who is the associate team physician for the New York Mets) and Kinderknecht (who is a team physician for the New York Giants), highlight the protocols for testing and quarantines in the respective leagues, and how these leagues are approaching play going forward during the pandemic.

Watch the discussion at Medscape.com.

Read the article at APnews.com.

Additional coverage:

• MLB.com/rays
• Beckersspine.com
• Beckersspine.com