Interesting info on the surgery that was performed on Drew Brees

Interesting info on the surgery that was performed on Drew Brees

I originally posted this in the "Coach Pete Partially Retracts His Statement about Brees not Playing this Year", but I thought it might deserve its own thread. Hopefully those with more knowledge of surgical medicine and physical therapy could chime in.

I found an interesting medical journal abstract about the type of surgery that Drew had. It is fairly new. Here is part of the abstract of a medical article co-authored by Dr. Shin:

Abstract

One of the most commonly injured structures of the thumb metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint is the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). An acute injury of this ligament is often amenable to primary repair. Despite the favorable outcomes of primary repair, the thumb is often restricted during initial healing of the ligament with immobilization and delayed rehabilitation. We present a novel technique to augment the repair of the UCL with suture tape to provide immediate biomechanical support and strength during the critical time of ligament healing. We describe the surgical technique of suture tape augmentation for thumb UCL repair.

Here's another excerpt from the abstract:

We present a representative case of a professional basketball player treated with this novel procedure. After the surgical repair, the patient was placed in a plaster splint for 3 days to immobilize the thumb and wrist. At 3 days postsurgery, the splint was removed and therapy initiated. Practice drills were initiated at 1 week postsurgery with the use of a removable hand-based thumb spica custom splint. During the entire postoperative period, the left thumb MCP joint had excellent stability to radial stress at full extension and 30 degrees of flexion. In addition, at 3 weeks postsurgery, the patient was able to oppose the thumb tip to the palmar-digital crease of the small finger and MCP joint motion was 0 to 50 degrees. The patient began strengthening exercises at this time, along with the ability to participate in all position-specific drills. At 5 weeks postsurgery, the patient was cleared to return to full play, without use of a splint.

Here is what I took from this medical Abstract. The procedure Dr. Shin uses allows for rehab to start very quickly after after surgery as opposed to keeping the thumb immobilized for a much longer time. It can shorten the usual return to play from 6 weeks to as low as 4 weeks because the rehab starts much earlier. Brees is probably out of his cast now and probably doing "practice drills".

All that being said, and the position of the bye week in the schedule, he should wait until after that. But knowing Drew and his work ethic he will be itching to come back the week before the bye.