Is There a Relationship Between Grip Strength and Injuries in Professional Baseball Players: Response

Authors’ Response:

We appreciate the commentators’ interest in our article “Is There a Relationship Between Grip Strength and Injuries in Professional Baseball Players?” ¹ and understand there were some questions. The purpose of this study was to start the discussion on the relationship between grip strength in professional baseball players and the potential shoulder and elbow injury risk. In regard to the specific concerns that were raised, yes, the data were collected prospectively as the standard of care but were analyzed retrospectively after the players’ injuries did or did not occur. Hence, the cases were the injured players, while the controls were the noninjured players, making this a case-control study. Second, our definition of an injury, we felt, was appropriate to try to capture as many injured players as possible. Many studies used time spent on the injured list, but there are many other factors that go into a player’s placement on the injured list, so we elected to use the definition we provided. Next, the entire season of grip strength was collected before any data were analyzed. We apologize if the commentators were confused by our wording in the study. As previously mentioned, this was the jumping-off point for a broader discussion on grip strength and potential injuries in professional baseball players and has been well received as a talking point within the baseball medical community. We look forward to reading a well-done clinical study by the group of commentators that furthers the discussion in this elite group of athletes. We are excited to see the work they publish on the subject.

Sincerely,

Brandon J. Erickson, MD Paul Buchheit, ATC Joseph Rauch, DPT, ATC Michael G. Ciccotti, MD Ryan W. Paul, BS Steven B. Cohen, MDPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania