Fatigue Fracture of the Medial Epicondyle
Habib Olapade
UK pre law student; Falsely imprisoned in TX intending to move to CA, HI, or UK upon release.
In younger patients, fatigue fractures of the medial epicondyle cause pain and swelling. Most patients play either softball or baseball and tend to have a penchant for throwing a high number of curveballs. Prevention or minimization of the injury’s extent involves several steps. First, it is important to maintain proper conditioning by instructing patients to continue pitching in the off-season or gradually increasing their pitching load as the season progresses instead of having a high load at the start of the season. Second, if the patient is suffering from pain and/or inflammation, she or he should stop throwing immediately with a moratorium on pitching until she or he has a full range of motion without pain. Patients who return to play after recovering from the malady should have their pitch counts monitored and be pulled from competition with any reports of pain or control loss.