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Article: Victory for sports medicine // McMahon case step forward, says Jobe
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- November 11, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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When Jim McMahon came back from shoulder surgery, sports
medicine took a step forward.
McMahon's surgery Dec. 12 wasn't just another rotator cuff
operation. Dr. Frank Jobe used a procedure he had done "maybe 10
times," Jobe said. McMahon's test to recover was also a test for the
surgical technique that could take the five-alarm panic out of the
words "torn rotator cuff" for athletes who throw.
It wasn't that Jobe wanted to experiment with the Bears'
high-profile quarterback. "The point was, we didn't have anything
better," he said.
Doctors had learned barely a year earlier why throwing athletes
have had mixed results with rotator cuff surgery. It turned out most
of those athletes had ...