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Would you like to have a surgical procedure named after you?

Tommy John was an extremely successful Major League pitcher whose career spanned from 1963 to 1989. He was a four-time MLB All Star; and among baseball’s all-time leaders, he is 8th in games started and 26th in both wins and shutouts. Yet after his stats and awards are eclipsed and forgotten, his name will live on because of what happened to his pitching elbow and the treatment he received. It changed the entire game.

What do Tom Brady’s, Tiger Wood’s, and Fido’s knees have in common?

My previous two blog posts (Part 1, Part 2) describe vexatious tears of the anterior cruciate ligaments in athletes, but humans are not alone in sustaining injuries to this critical knee ligament. The knees of dogs, horses, cattle, and other quadrupeds are called stifles. To add to terminology confusion, our ACL is their cranial cruciate ligament.

What do Tom Brady’s and Tiger Wood’s knees have in common? Part I?

Inside the knee, the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments are positioned to prevent the tibia (shin bone) from shifting forward and backward, respectively, on the femur (thigh bone). These two interior ligaments along with the collateral ligaments spanning the outside of the joint allow the knee to bend through a 120-150-degree arc of motion while keeping the tibia firmly aligned on the end of the femur.

What do ligaments look like, anyway?

Ligaments hardly get any respect. By comparison, bones in natural history museums and on X-rays are fascinating. We can also marvel at dissembled ones on otherwise empty dinner plates. Muscles, too, get their due. Since they are just under the skin, we have a sense of their shape, can feel them contact and relax, and note the effects of conditioning and overexertion.