A biomechanical consideration on immediate post operative mobilisation after medial ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction

The hypothesis examined in this study tests whether, the mechanical behavior of tendon grafts can determine if immediate post operative mobilization after medial ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction can occur. Cyclic loading, followed by single cycle loading was applied to sutured tendon grafts in suture-tendon and tendon-suturetendon configurations using bovine tendon models. The result showed that the failure occurs at the tendon-suture interface, but the load required to cause failure is still higher than those that a patient would deliver postoperatively. It is therefore recommended to fully mobilize without restriction, achieving full range of motion early on and avoid the complications of elbow stiffness.