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Does The Presence Of Proximal Humerus Growth Plate Changes In Young Baseball Pitchers Happen Only In Symptomatic Athletes? A X-Ray Evaluation Of 21 Young Baseball Pitchers.

Murachovsky J, Ikemoto RY, Nascimento LG, Bueno RS, Strose E, Almeida LH

ABC School of Medicine, Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of X-rays changes in the proximal humerus growth plate of 21 young pitchers. DESIGN: Case Series SETTING: This study was conducted at the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, ABC Faculty of Medicine, Santo Andre, SP -Brazil. Terciary institution. PATIENTS: We studied 21 male adolescent baseball pitchers with mean age 14.5 years selected from the Brazilian National Team. INTERVENTIONS: The patients were submited to X rays evaluations of the shoulders Main Outcome Measuraments: The patients shoulders X rays were studied to look for changes in the proximal humeral groth plate and correlated to clinical findings. RESULTS: Fourteen athletes (66%) had radiographic changes in the proximal humerus growth plate. Nine of these 14 cases (64%) where the observers found radiographic changes did not complain of pain. We also observed that in only 11 cases there was a correlation between the clinical and radiographic evaluations. CONCLUSION: We concluded that radiographic change in the proximal humerus growth plate was found in 66% of the cases and that no significant correlation was found with the clinical evaluation. A presence of widening of the growth plate of the proximal humerus of young pitchers' dominant shoulder can occur even in asymptomatic athletes. Probably this widening represents the evolution, in the future, to a greater retroversion of their dominant shoulders.

Published 5 March 2008 in Br J Sports Med.
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