Abstract
Five baseball pitchers, three college and two profes sional, with an average age of 24 years, exhibited pain between the acceleration phase and follow- through phase of the pitching motion. This caused the players to be unable to continue at the level of com petition necessary to play. A significant osteophyte on the posteromedial aspect of the olecranon process was identified in all pitchers. This caused impingement with the articular wall of the olecranon fossa and often created an area of chondromalacia. The more com monly identified posterior osteophyte was present in all cases. However, if just this posterior osteophyte is removed, the described lesion will be missed, with resultant persistent disability.
Surgical excision of the posteromedial osteophyte through a relatively atraumatic posterolateral ap proach allowed early return of function without mor bidity. With an average follow up of 1 year, all of the pitchers returned for one full season at maximum effectiveness.
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