|
Elbow injury is one of the most common sports injury among baseball pitchers. The excessive valgus motion of elbow during throwing ball may stretch the ulnar nerve. However, the impact of elbow injury on ulnar nerves were overlooked among injuried pitchers. The nerve conduction study was the best diagnosis throwing method for peripheral nerve injuries. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the ulnar nerve conduction velocity among non-injuried and injuried pitchers and non-athletes. In this study, we recruited 8 non-injuried pitchers, 8 injuried pitchers, and 8 age-matched non-injuried athletes. Supermaximal electrical stimulation was applied to the ulnar nerve at wrist, below-elbow, and above-elbow areas. Electromyography (EMG) was recorded from ADM and FDI muscles. The nerve conduction velocity (NCV) was calculated seperately from cross-elbow, and below-elbow segments. The results revealed that the averaged ulnar NCVs of non-injuried pitchers were significantly faster than the injuried pitchers and non-injuried athlete groups. In non-injuried pitchers, the ulnar NVCs of their dominate arms were significantly faster than their non-dominate arms. No significant difference of ulnar NVCs were found between the dominate and non-dominate arm in injured pitcher and non-athlete groups. In conclusion, the improvement of ulnar NVCs in non-injuried pitchers may be an adaptation response of ball-throwing training. The ulnar NVCs of injuried pitchers were not sufficient. For pitchers training, we suggest that the training dose should be quantified and the intensity of training should be sufficient to improve ulnar NVCs.
|