Labral+Tears

Labral tears are injuries to the labrum of the shoulder. This is a very common injury in the MLB. It just depends on the degree and disability of the injury to determine how bad it really is. It is so often that if you looked through a surgical scope at a pitchers shoulder, even those with no reported symptoms, you would find damage to the labrum more times than not. It is weird how some pitchers still pitch fine even though there is significant tissue damage to the labrum. Even more weird if a thrower with very little damage is completely unable to play. The reason for this is unclear.

The labrum in this picture is torn and worn down.   The labrum is a ring of cartilage that surrounds the socket in the shoulder joint and it actually helps the shoulder joint stability. When torn, the labrum can make the shoulder catch, causing the shoulder to be very painful and may feel unstable. The bicep tendon is connected to the labrum, so if the bicep tendon has problems, this could lead to having labral problems. The labrum has a lot of stress during the throwing motion, so it is constantly worked. Surgical repair may be the eventual treatment, if a player does not respond to a period of rest and rehabilitation. The recovery for surgical repair is very lengthy. Players do come back but the timing and effectiveness when they return greatly varies.

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