watson08
New
I thought I'd report on my just completed right elbow surgery and then later report on how it impacts my ability to square the club as I attempt to make a return to the game hopefully sometime in the summer of 2009.
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I originally had some injury to my right elbow why playing tennis at a decent level as a teenager and this injury also bothered me later as a baseball/softball player and eventually as a golfer as I took this finest of activities after college. The injury I first felt while playing tennis was not typical laterial epicondylitis (tennis elbow), but medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow). Go figure... I played through the pain until about 10 years ago when I had an orthopedic doctor cut out some "bad" muscle on the inside of my right elbow and sew the "good" muscle back together. My doctor described healthy muscle as striated in appearance. The muscle can become more homogeneous and soft/spongy in places where the body has attempted to repair muscle injury. After a long layoff, I resumed playing, but never was able to get away from pain in this region and I limited my play as such.
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Since significant pain persisted and cortizone was of no use to heal the injury, I had additional surgery Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The same doctor went in with the thought of attempting a repair similar to the one 10 years past, but he found large areas of damaged muscle and far too little good muscle in this area to permit a repair. He ended up removing the wrist flexor and pronator from my right elbow. These muscles then slid down into the forearm and are supposed to revascularize so that there is still some strength and function, albeit reduced due to the shortening of the muscles themselves.
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My doctor is a bit concerned about how this might impact my ability to pronate and draw the ball, which is why we avoided this surgery until now. I am his first golfer to get the "full release" surgery. To me, the positive points are as follows: there should still be some pronator strength in my right arm after recovery from surgery and I've always keyed on left forearm roll as the way to square the clubface in the downswing. Anyway, how much pronator action was I getting from my painful right arm over the last 10-15 years?
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Some Related Anatomical Notes:
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Epicondylitis - is an inflammation of either the lateral or medial epicondyle of the humerus. Inflammation is usually brought about from overuse of the muscles attached to either of these bony prominence. The area around the epicondyle becomes very painful especially after performing resisted movements using the appropriate muscles. Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) comes from over use of the wrist extensors, while forearm flexors are involved with medial epicondylitis (golfer’s elbow).
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The forearm connects the elbow with the wrist and can be divided into 2 compartments: an anterior or flexor compartment and a posterior or extensor compartment. Muscles in the anterior or flexor compartment pronate the radioulnar joints, flex the wrist and also flex the digits. Muscles in the latter compartment help supinate the radioulnar joints, extend the wrist and help extend the digits.
Flexor (Anterior) Compartment:
Muscles
Superficial Group
Pronator teres
Flexor carpi radialis
Palmaris longus
Flexor carpi ulnaris
Intermediate Group
Flexor digitorum superficialis
Deep group
Flexor digitorum Profundus
Flexor pollicis longus
Pronator quadratus
.
I originally had some injury to my right elbow why playing tennis at a decent level as a teenager and this injury also bothered me later as a baseball/softball player and eventually as a golfer as I took this finest of activities after college. The injury I first felt while playing tennis was not typical laterial epicondylitis (tennis elbow), but medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow). Go figure... I played through the pain until about 10 years ago when I had an orthopedic doctor cut out some "bad" muscle on the inside of my right elbow and sew the "good" muscle back together. My doctor described healthy muscle as striated in appearance. The muscle can become more homogeneous and soft/spongy in places where the body has attempted to repair muscle injury. After a long layoff, I resumed playing, but never was able to get away from pain in this region and I limited my play as such.
.
Since significant pain persisted and cortizone was of no use to heal the injury, I had additional surgery Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The same doctor went in with the thought of attempting a repair similar to the one 10 years past, but he found large areas of damaged muscle and far too little good muscle in this area to permit a repair. He ended up removing the wrist flexor and pronator from my right elbow. These muscles then slid down into the forearm and are supposed to revascularize so that there is still some strength and function, albeit reduced due to the shortening of the muscles themselves.
.
My doctor is a bit concerned about how this might impact my ability to pronate and draw the ball, which is why we avoided this surgery until now. I am his first golfer to get the "full release" surgery. To me, the positive points are as follows: there should still be some pronator strength in my right arm after recovery from surgery and I've always keyed on left forearm roll as the way to square the clubface in the downswing. Anyway, how much pronator action was I getting from my painful right arm over the last 10-15 years?
.
.
Some Related Anatomical Notes:
.
Epicondylitis - is an inflammation of either the lateral or medial epicondyle of the humerus. Inflammation is usually brought about from overuse of the muscles attached to either of these bony prominence. The area around the epicondyle becomes very painful especially after performing resisted movements using the appropriate muscles. Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) comes from over use of the wrist extensors, while forearm flexors are involved with medial epicondylitis (golfer’s elbow).
.
The forearm connects the elbow with the wrist and can be divided into 2 compartments: an anterior or flexor compartment and a posterior or extensor compartment. Muscles in the anterior or flexor compartment pronate the radioulnar joints, flex the wrist and also flex the digits. Muscles in the latter compartment help supinate the radioulnar joints, extend the wrist and help extend the digits.
Flexor (Anterior) Compartment:
Muscles
Superficial Group
Pronator teres
Flexor carpi radialis
Palmaris longus
Flexor carpi ulnaris
Intermediate Group
Flexor digitorum superficialis
Deep group
Flexor digitorum Profundus
Flexor pollicis longus
Pronator quadratus
