During the Dallas Cowboys recent preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals, the Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Neville Gallimore suffered an elbow dislocation. Although plenty of literature exists for this injury in the general population, there is limited data in NFL players.
However, in 2018 Chang et al. looked at the management of elbow dislocations in NFL players between 2000 and 2011. They were able to find 62 occurrences of elbow dislocations during the studied period with only one having a concurrent fracture associated with the dislocation. Of the 47 players treated without surgery or unknown surgical status and able to return in the same season, the average time lost was 25.1 days (0-118 days). Gallimore is a defensive tackle and this study showed that the majority of elbow dislocations occurred in defensive players (40 of 62).
This study does not include level of play data on return to play, patient reported outcome data, period of immobilization, or recurrence. Overall, this does appear to be good news for Gallimore as he will hopefully make a full and timely recovery.
