Understanding the Disabled Throwing Shoulder Requires Updated Review of Anatomy, Mechanics, Pathomechanics, and Treatment.

Abstract

Understanding both shoulder health and shoulder pathology in throwers is relevant to overhead athletes, and also relevant to nonoverhead athletes and even nonathletes. The thrower's shoulder is a clinically relevant topic of medical research scholarship today. Some of the greatest advances in sports medicine result from our ability to visualize normal and pathologic anatomy of joints, including the shoulder, using a small camera and a fiberoptic light source, through small portals, and without disruptive surgical dissection, or, in a word, "arthroscopy." Updates on the thrower's shoulder, including anatomy, mechanics, pathomechanics, and treatment, are essential for clinicians and researchers treating or investigating the shoulder.