Outcomes evaluation of the athletic elbow

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic Surgery
• Sports Medicine
• Athletic Performance Evaluation

Background:

• High-level athletes present unique challenges for orthopedic surgery outcome evaluation due to high baseline function.
• Subtle performance deficits post-injury or surgery are critical for athletes but difficult to detect with standard metrics.
• Clinically relevant outcome measures are essential for evidence-based medicine and performance accountability in orthopedic interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate clinical outcome measures specifically for sports-related elbow injuries in athletes.
• To identify and analyze the most relevant outcome measures for the athletic elbow.
• To compare the validity and applicability of various elbow outcome scores in overhead athletes.

Main Methods:

• Review and analysis of established orthopedic outcome measures for elbow injuries.
• Focus on five key measures: American Shoulder and Elbow Committee, Mayo Elbow Performance Index, Andrews-Timmerman, Andrews-Carson, and Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic score.
• Inclusion of 'return to play' statistics and the Conway-Jobe scale in the evaluation.

Main Results:

• The Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic score is the sole outcome tool developed and validated for elbow injuries in overhead athletes.
• The Andrews-Timmerman and Conway-Jobe metrics lack specific validation for this athletic population.
• The Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder, Hand (DASH) score, while validated for general upper extremity issues, is not specific enough for elbow function in athletes.

Conclusions:

• The Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic score is the most appropriate validated outcome measure for athletic elbow injuries.
• Existing measures like DASH are insufficient for evaluating elbow-specific outcomes in high-performance athletes.
• Further research may be needed to refine or develop universally applicable, validated outcome measures for the athletic elbow.