Purpose
We sought to examine the relation among glenoid morphology, glenohumeral range of
motion (ROM), and history of shoulder injury in professional baseball pitchers.
Methods
We studied 58 professional baseball pitchers. Internal rotation (IR) and external
rotation (ER) ROM was measured at 90° of abduction. Horizontal adduction (HAdd) ROM
was also measured. Glenoid superior inclination and glenoid retroversion (GRV) were
then measured radiographically. Separate mixed-model analyses of variance were used
to compare dependent measures between the dominant and nondominant shoulders of pitchers
with or without a history of SLAP repair. Significant interaction effects were interpreted
by use of a test for simple main effects (α = .05).
Results
GRV was significantly greater on the dominant side (8.7° ± 5.6°) versus nondominant
side (5.5° ± 5.2°) (P = .001), whereas glenoid superior inclination was equivalent (99.5° ± 4.3° for dominant
side v 99.2° ± 4.4° for nondominant side, P = .853). Post hoc analysis indicated that pitchers with a history of SLAP repair
did not display an adaptive increase in dominant GRV compared with nondominant GRV
(P = .016). There were no statistical differences between groups for ER (P = .29), IR (P = .39), or HAdd (P = .39). The dominant shoulder displayed greater ER (mean increase, 6.2° ± 12.2°)
with a complementary decrease in IR (mean decrease, 5.8° ± 13.2°) and HAdd (mean decrease,
8.9° ± 13.7°) compared with the nondominant side.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that the development of increased GRV in the dominant shoulder
of professional baseball pitchers may be a protective adaptive change not reflected
in glenohumeral ROM measures.
Level of Evidence
Level IV, therapeutic case series.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 21, 2012
Accepted:
February 20,
2012
Received:
July 8,
2011
Footnotes
The authors report the following potential conflict of interest or source of funding in relation to this article: Ziehm Imaging provided equipment and personnel for data collection.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
