Week 4 Blog


After reading over the material I was quite surprised on how much art and medicine go hand-in-hand. Growing up, I thought art was limited to only paintings on the wall but after studying the last few weeks’ material, I now think of art in a broader sense.  Over the past year, I have personally experienced doctors varying and extraordinary techniques (art) on how they perform surgery (medicine). Due to the overuse of my throwing arm last year pitching for the baseball team, I tore a ligament and had UCL reconstruction surgery, most commonly known as Tommy John. For my surgery they used my Palmaris Longus tendon to replace my UCL in my right elbow.

My arm after 2 weeks post surgery

This type of injury would normally end baseball players career until 1974 when Dr. Frank Jobe performed the first successful surgery on pitcher, Tommy John. Perfecting this surgery technique over the past 43 years has allowed me to keep pursuing my dream to eventually be drafted and play in the Major Leagues.

Dr. Frank Jobe’s surgical process and repair success has become an artful, specialization in the medical community. Dr. Jobe pioneered the surgery and now the procedure is fairly common and has changed baseball in a positive way.



Dr. Frank Jobe
Besides UCL reconstruction surgery, there is another technique that can help injured athletes in a positive way, it’s a new method called PRP Rich Plasma injection. This injection consist red cells, white cells and platelets that is injected into the injured area, which improves the health of the injured tendon. The link between a UCL surgery and a PRP injection is the diagnosis of the injury. To detect the extent and type of injury an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is done. In Silvia Casini’s article about MRI’s, she states an MRI is an imaging technique “that allows scientists to directly monitor neurons through the body, providing high-quality images of organs, structures, and tissues.” Although Casini is discussing about how MRI’s look into the brain but MRI’s are used all over the body. In my case, the MRI of my right elbow showed a significant tear, which led to my surgery a couple weeks later.
PRP Plasma injection
MRI







-Kyle Molnar
Citations
Casini, Silvia. Magnetic Resonance Imaging as Mirror and Portrait. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. 

"Pitch Smart." Major League Baseball. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

"Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)." Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)-OrthoInfo - AAOS. American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons , 01 Sept. 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

"Tommy John Surgery." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

Vesna, Victoria. “MedTech and Art.” DESMA 9. Lecture.

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