Shoulder Injury no Deterrent in NFL

Is shoulder surgery a game-ender for players in the NFL? Not according to a study of 60 players who had shoulder stabilization surgery. Ninety percent of those who had this procedure successfully returned to play. The return rate was 82% for those who had open surgery and 92% for those who had minimally invasive surgery.

According to a report in HealthDay News, shoulder instability is a common injury among players in the NFL. On average, players returned to play 8.6 months after surgery, according to the study.

One of the study authors Matthew White, M.D., of the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, said in a news release, “Our study highlighted the success rate of return to play following shoulder stabilization surgery. Age, number of games before surgery, and career length were not statistically different between those that returned and those that did not.”

“A peculiarity of the research revealed that players selected before the fourth round of the NFL draft were 7.6 times more likely to return to play following shoulder stabilization surgery. Additional investigation on shoulder function and outcome scores long-term would also be beneficial in this group of athletes, ” White added.