Today’s article is “Hook of Hamate Fractures in Major and Minor League Baseball Players.”
The hamate is a bone in the wrist that and can be fractured by repetitive stress from batting, an acute injury, from batting or other baseball related occurrences. Fracture of the hook historically has a high nonunion rate due to its location and poor blood supply.
The authors describe a series of 145 major and minor league baseball players that underwent excision of the hook of the hamate after fracture. Reported mechanisms include batting in 131, fielding in 3, sliding in 2, hit by pitch in 3 and unknown in 6. The authors looked at both acute and subacute/chronic injury patterns although treatment did not differ. The authors found subacute and chronic injuries to make up ~81% of the presenting injuries. The authors do not report any patient reported outcomes or if the players returned to the same level of play. However, they do report that the average return to unrestricted baseball activities was 7.1 +/- 0.9 weeks.
Interesting read from the authors for this uncommon injury. This should be good news for baseball players showing quick return to activity with low incidence of complications.
