Labrums Galore!

Written by: Ryan Tandy on 10th March 2009

Labrums Galore! | read this item

Alex Rodriguez is sequestered on a Colorado compound with millions of dollars of world-class medical attention analyzing him. Across the nation, millions of baseball fans (including you!) tune in to the latest news while the microphones stand open and the cameras whirl to focus. The guest star in this latest episode of A-Rod! is…the acetabular labrum:

The labrum is a fibrocartilaginous rim which attaches to theacetabulum. It deepens the cavity and at the same timeprotects the bone and reduces any inequalities in its surface.It is triangular in section, being thicker above and posteriorlythan below and anteriorly. A double layered synovial membranesurrounds the joint, the external membrane communicating withthe capsule, while the internal one helps to narrow the acetabulum.

In case you’re wondering, that’s English. No, really – it’s from the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

All that “English” stuff describes the ring of cartilage that not only keeps the leg-bone snugly connected to the hip-bone but also acts as a mechanical bearing and fluid gasket for the entire joint. The labrum (Latin for “lip”) does not tear easily. Intuitively, you might think that the same inhuman hip torque that powers A-Rod’s bat through his wheelhouse would damage the hip socket somehow. Chase Utley generates a lot of power as well, and is now recovering from the arthroscopic procedure that A-Rod is committed to. Hard-swinging Mike Lowell is just picking up a bat this week, after October arthroscopy. Remember Bo Jackson, whose hips didn’t get click-y until he started playing baseball? And then there was Albert Belle with all those homeruns. Labrum tears must be a “baseball thing”, right?

Not quite, according to Robert Buly, M.D., orthopedic surgeon and hip specialist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

“Although labral tears can occur with serious trauma, usually they occur as a result of degeneration, or by some form of dysplasia (shallow socket) or impingement (deep socket or bony femur).”

I’ll save you three Googles: all of those conditions are gradual in onset, and often result from simple genetics and the mechanics of a flawed body structure. Surely, years of batting practice and cage beating can mimic those degenerative effects of age or flawed genes, right? Again, not quite, according to Dr. Buly.

“If you have normal hip anatomy, you should be able to be a high-caliber athlete without your hip bothering you.”

So, does this mean that A-Rod, Utley, Jackson, Belle, and Lowell share some kind of missing-link bum-hipped ancestor, to be now dubbed by scientists as Bumhippicus Baseballicus?

Let’s look at hip degeneration. I rummaged through the internettles searching for whatever I can dig up. Hip degeneration of a certain type seems to occur very often in woman as they age. Has to do with hormones like estrogen and testosterone “balancing out” or “tapering off”, or how minerals are “absorbed” and “processed by cells”, or something like that. It’s confusing to me. I’m not the barber here, anyway. I don’t use estrogen myself; although it does feel like I’m freebasing the stuff when my carina pours me a cup of flaxseed tea and flips to “You’ve Got Mail” (they drink flaxseed tea in South America, she tells me, they call it linaza and give it to the abuelitas to keep their bones strong – but it’s perfectly safe for caballeros, unlike “You’ve Got Mail”). And I don’t take testosterone, which, oddly enough, is prescribed for various health conditions involving the wasting of muscle and bone tissues and is often abused by professional athletes and…some other nonsense like that.

I have nothing more to admit at this time.

Former Mets assistant athletic trainer Bob Sikes does admit that a torn labrum diagnosis is generally a contentious issue.

“Injuries to the labrum of the hip like A-Rod’s are still a bit of a mystery in sport medicine. There just aren’t many case studies on the books.”

So THAT would explain, perhaps, why Joe Girardi mentioned that A-Rod had some hip or groin discomfort as far back as last year and that no cut-and-dry condition was named, treated, and rehabbed back then.

What isn’t contentious is that once diagnosed, it’s best to treat labral tears ASAP because they only worsen with wear. Dr. Buly, Coach Sikes, Yankee fans, and A-Rod’s brother Joe would certainly agree to that. Put your 3B chips on Cody Ransom, who Johnny Damon has called the “team’s best athlete”. Get Rodriguez on that operating table, Brian Cashman. An arthroscopic thingamabob will be inserted, the snippety-doo-da’s will be flabbety-floozled, and our cleanup man, A-Rod, will get on the skidly-doo road to recovering, at best with a six week program of exercise and rehab, and back on the table in October to finish the procedure. I hear flaxseed tea can help, too.

Joe Janish also contributed to this article. Catch more of his lengthy and informative interview of Dr. Buly this week on Baseball Digest Radio.

Thanks to Mark, Macphisto, y Carina Mia.

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Topics: Alex Rodriguez, bob sikes, cody ransom, dr. buly

Lem The Gem says:

March 11, 2009 at 7:53 pm

RANDY:
‘Roids increase the wear and tear on joints like elbows, ,shoulders, knees, ankles and TA -DAHH !!! HIPS. Now, if and I’m only saying “IF” an athelete were to inject himself anywhere around the gludeus maximus with a performance enhancing drug…
I’ve previously read Howard Bryant’s brilliant expose on the Steroid
Era > “Juicing The Game” and am now savoring the Verducci/Torre Tome >
“The Yankee Years” which both address the areas of the body that deteriorate from the use of these drugs. The sad fact is that although
they may enhance performance to some level, they ALSO speed up the aging process to vital joint areas and unfortunately like Giambi before him, we MAY see a gradual decline in the stamina of one of the
best players in the game today from only three years of abuse.
Ryan Tandy says:

March 11, 2009 at 9:31 pm

When you screw with your body, your body screws with you back.

Unfortunately, any legitimate explanation of a physical ailment in any of these players will be suspect once they are marked as a user.