Research Helps Athletes Return to Sport After Elbow Surgery

ATLANTA (September 15, 2025) - Orthopedic and Sports Medicine physicians at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta conducted a single-center prospective research study in hopes to provide better outcomes for high-level athletes following elbow surgery. The study, published in American Journal of Sports Medicine, was authored by pediatric orthopedic surgeons, Crystal Perkins, MD, Michael T. Busch, MD, Anthony Egger, MD, and Clifton Willimon, MD.

The sports medicine team frequently treats patients diagnosed with a condition called osteochondritis dissecans, which impacts the bone and cartilage of a joint, including the knee, elbow, or ankle. In upper extremity athletes, such as gymnasts, baseball and softball players, a portion of the elbow called the capitellum is affected, causing pain and limiting movement. Historically, the treatment for this has been a surgical procedure to remove damaged cartilage or bone. Although this method is effective in some patients, high-level upper extremity athletes can report continued pain in their elbow post-surgery and inability to return to their sport at full capacity.

After identifying this problem, Drs. Perkins, Busch, and Willimon sought to find a treatment option with more positive outcomes for these athletes and decided to conduct a study to track the effectiveness of osteochondral allograft transplantation to the elbow. Instead of harvesting a bone and cartilage graft from the patient's healthy knee (osteochondral autograft) to transplant into the elbow, this surgical method uses donor bone and cartilage and avoids potential injury to the patient's otherwise healthy knee.

"We see a number of high-level athletes come through our doors at Children's with promising careers and futures," Dr. Perkins said. "Our sports medicine team was committed to finding a solution for these athletes, optimizing their surgical treatment and closely monitoring their outcomes."

The study follows 28 elbows in 26 patients between the ages of 11 and 15 years, with a minimum of two-year follow-up. The team collected data on how the patient's elbow functioned before and after surgery, and if they returned to sports and at what capacity. Patients also had follow-up MRIs of the elbow to evaluate the healing of the bone and cartilage graft.

The study reported an impressive 96 percent rate of return to sport associated with osteochondral allograft transplantation, compared to previous studies citing 50 percent rate of return among high-level upper extremity athletes associated with prior surgical treatments.

"The genesis of this study speaks well to the Children's commitment to 'do everything possible to make anything possible for kids'," Dr. Perkins said. "We are constantly evolving and seeking better treatment options for our patients so they can go back to being kids."