Sports Medicine Specialist to Study Shoulder, Elbow Problems in Young Pitchers

The recent opening day at Comerica Park and ballparks across the country heralds the beginning of baseball season, and for many it also means that the start of Little League Baseball is just around the corner.

Beaumont orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist Joseph Guettler, M.D., always knows when baseball season has started because of all of the young pitchers who show up in his office with sore shoulders and elbows.

"The flood gates open in the spring and summer," explains Dr. Guettler."Young throwers flock to my office with shoulder and elbow issues, and although I can diagnose them and give them a treatment regimen, I can't always tell them whether it happened from throwing too much, or because of the way they throw. This makes it difficult to tell them how they can prevent it from happening again."   

The fact is that overuse shoulder and elbow injuries in young pitchers are becoming increasingly prevalent. Many parents have high expectations for their young throwers, and that means that summer league baseball is extended into winter travel teams, special camps and year-round throwing. In addition, kids are simply pushed harder these days - starting younger, throwing harder and doing it for more innings.

"In my day, you did baseball in the spring and summer, and then other sports in the fall and winter," explains Dr. Guettler."These days, kids are throwing year-round, and that places a tremendous amount of stress on the growing shoulders and elbows of these young pitchers - there is simply no time to recover."

In an attempt to cut down on Little League pitching injuries, Dr. Guettler has been appointed to lead Phase I of a national study sponsored by the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine. The study will seek to gather information via questionnaires on thousands of Little League pitchers ages 9 to 14 from around the country, and establish links between risk factors and throwing injuries. It will be the largest study of its kind in the world to date, and is expected to start later this year.

"We hope to establish the world's largest database to determine the risk factors for throwing problems in youngsters," says Dr. Guettler.

Phase II of the study will use advanced video camera and biomechanical analysis to compare good throwing technique with bad - and tell how these techniques lead to or could help prevent injury.

When can my child safely start throwing a curve ball?  How many innings per week is safe?  How many months of the year can my child throw? Is it better to throw overhand vs. side arm? Dr. Guettler is hopeful that these questions, and many others, will soon be answered. And that these answers will be based on good, solid science.