Journal de médecine du sport et d'études sur le dopage

Relief of Pitcher’s Elbow by Denervation of Medial Humeral Epicondyle

Abstract

A Lee Dellon

An operation is presented to relieve the pain of medial epicondylitis related to a throwing injury in a teenage baseball player. This 17 year old had progressive pain at the medial humeral epicondyle only with the pitching motion. His MRI was normal and he did not have any symptoms of ulnar nerve entrapment. A nerve block of the nerve to the medial humeral epicondyle enabled him to carry out the pitching motion without pain. The nerve was resected about 2 cm proximal to the medial humeral epicondyle at the medial intermuscular septum and the proximal end of the nerve implanted into the medial head of the triceps muscle. At three weeks after surgery he resumed pitching. At one year following the denervation, he is able to pitch without the previous pain. This is the first reported treatment of this problem in a pitcher by denervation, and demonstrates the ability to return to sports rapidly after this minimally invasive procedure.