There are inconsistencies everywhere surrounding this Alex Rodriguez story. I wrote an article earlier this week dealing with A-Rod’s cyst and it’s fantasy impact. A link to an MLB.com article detailing the situation was provided (lame, I know).
Keith Allison - Flickr
The MLB.com article focused mainly on A-Rod’s brother announcing that Rodriguez will miss a bunch of time due to cyst surgery.
Then, MLB.com made the link disappear. The link was replaced with an article detailing how the cyst had been aspirated on Thursday — which is odd because my article was written Wednesday night. Either way, I’m not sure why they removed the article from both MLB.com and their sister site worldbaseballclassic.com
Here’s the article by Bryan Hoch (taken from google cache, entitled Brother: A-Rod could be out until May:
TAMPA, Fla. — Alex Rodriguez’s troublesome right hip requires immediate surgery and could force the Yankees slugger out until May, the third baseman’s brother told LasMayores.com, MLB.com’s Spanish-language Web site.
Rodriguez’s brother, Joe Dunand, said that Rodriguez will have the operation performed in Vail, Colo., on Monday by Dr. Marc Philippon. The recovery time is expected to be about 10 weeks.
The diagnosis will nix Rodriguez’s hopes of playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.
“We’re not giving any information right now,” Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo said Thursday.
“I do not have that information. I have not heard that yet. I have to talk to Cash,” manager Joe Girardi said, referring to general manager Brian Cashman.
Rodriguez left the Dominican Republic team on Wednesday to fly to Colorado after the results of a MRI taken Saturday in Tampa revealed the internal cyst. A Yankees team physician, Dr. Chris Ahmad, recommended that Rodriguez undergo an examination by a specialist.
The 33-year-old Rodriguez has managed discomfort in his right hip dating back to last season. Girardi said Wednesday that Rodriguez had expressed feeling “a little stiffness” at various times since last season.
“There wasn’t really any pain — just some mild stiffness,” Girardi said. “He was doing a lot of stretching and worked on it this winter as well. We just want to make sure that we’re doing the right things with this.”
Rodriguez has played regularly this spring, including going 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored in Tuesday’s Dominican Republic exhibition against the Marlins. He left the Yankees on Sunday after playing in New York’s Grapefruit League loss to the Reds at Sarasota, Fla.
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. — MLB.com
I wanted to revisit this article to deal with some of the inconsistencies, and it seemed wise considering that A-Rod’s surgery was breaking news, somehow, 4 days later.
March 5th brought us: The News that A-Rod was doing his thing in Colorado, and there was the possibility of surgery.
The strange thing about this Newsday article was A-Rod’s comments to the Yankee organization:
Rodriguez told the Yankees he thought the hip soreness was restricting his bat motion, however, and possibly affecting his power.
March 7th brought us: Bloomberg’s ‘Maybe A-Rod Will have Surgery‘
March 8th and 9th brought us: A-Rod is going to have hybrid surgery and should be out for 6-9 weeks. As far as I can tell, the cyst is rubbing A-Rod’s hip labrum, and causing stiffness. Dr. Phillippon, the hip-specialist, plans on freeing up the labrum in addition to removing part of the cyst (mlb.com-link).
The MLB.com Link that replaced “Brother…” still piques my curiosity however, stating the following:
Cashman said that Rodriguez has not felt pain in the right hip, though an MRI examination taken last season during Rodriguez’s stint on the disabled list with a strained right quadriceps revealed an irregularity that was tucked into Rodriguez’s medical file.
Because the irregularity was asymptomatic and there was no pain, Rodriguez was permitted to continue playing. He had taken measures over the off-season and during the Grapefruit League season to relieve stiffness and restriction in the hip, including increased stretching.
USA Today listed A-Rod’s 2008 Quad injury as having taken place in late April, which I’d assume meant A-Rod played the entire 2008 season with the Yankees having known that he had a cyst or an irregularity.
A tear of the hip labrum does seem suspicious, however. Firstly, tearing the labrum in the hip joint generally requires absolutely no treatment, and patients often do not even realize they’ve torn it. The Mayo-Clinic’s website, Mayoclinic.com, will help us along, although feel free to skip to the end:
Symptoms: Many hip labral tears cause no signs or symptoms. Occasionally, however, you may experience one or more of the following:
* A locking, clicking or catching sensation in your hip joint
* Pain in your hip or groin
* Stiffness or limited range of motion in your hip jointCauses:
The cause of a hip labral tear may be:
- Repetitive activities. Sports-related and other physical activities — including the sudden twisting or pivoting motions common in golf or softball — can lead to joint wear and tear that ultimately results in a hip labral tear.
- Trauma. Injury to or dislocation of the hip joint, such as from playing football, hockey and other contact sports, can cause a hip labral tear.
- Diseases or conditions that damage the labrum. These may include degenerative conditions such as osteoarthritis or femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), a condition in which the ball of your femur and your acetabulum rub together abnormally, causing friction in your hip joint.
Sometimes a hip labral tear has no known cause.
Tests and Diaganosis:
Your doctor will ask about your symptoms and conduct a physical examination. He or she may ask you to move your hips and legs in different positions to assess your range of motion while asking you about any pain or unusual sensations.
To confirm a diagnosis of a hip labral tear, you may undergo a special type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) called magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography.
Magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography is a noninvasive technique that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create cross-sectional images of joints. During magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography, contrast material is injected into the joint space to help make images more clear.
Treatments and Drugs:
Many hip labral tears cause no signs or symptoms and need no treatment. However, when treatment is necessary it may include:
- Physical therapy. Exercises to maximize hip range of motion and hip strength and stability can help to improve symptoms. A physical therapist also can analyze the movements you perform that put stress on your hip joint and help you avoid these forces.
- Corticosteroid injections. A corticosteroid injection into the hip joint can help provide pain relief and reduce joint inflammation. These injections are performed under X-ray or ultrasound guidance.
- Pain medications. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can provide pain relief. NSAIDs include such over-the-counter (OTC) medications as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others) and naproxen (Aleve, others).
Arthroscopic surgery
If you have a hip labral tear and experience hip pain for more than four weeks, your doctor may recommend a surgical procedure called hip arthroscopy.During hip arthroscopy, an orthopedic surgeon inserts a flexible, drinking-straw-sized instrument (arthroscope) into your joint space through a small incision in your skin. The arthroscope is fitted with a lighting system and tiny camera, enabling the surgeon to see into your joint.
Once the surgeon can see the joint, the specialized instruments needed to perform the procedure are inserted through small accessory incisions. Depending on the cause and extent of the tear, the surgeon may cut out and remove the torn piece of labrum or repair the torn cartilage with a suture procedure.
YES, STEROIDS ARE A TREATMENT FOR A TORN HIP LABRUM. Awesome, or AWESOME?
Just a final note on the possibility of Rodriguez having osteo-arthritis or the possibility of FAI (hipfai.com):
Why does it occur?
No one knows if FAI is a condition that begins at birth (congenital) or develops during periods of growth (acquired). It is likely a combination of one’s genetics and environment.
How did I get it?
Some experts believe that significant athletic activity before skeletal maturity increases the risk of FAI, but no one truly knows. Significant contact sports (i.e., football) are associated with Cam impingement.
I’m going out on a limb when I say this, but when you combine a body that has yet to mature with mass amounts of steroids, and in turn, muscle growth — you have yourself a perfect set of conditions.
What I can’t understand is why Alex Rodriguez didn’t have this addressed in the OFF-SEASON.
Everyone knew there was a problem but like many people Rodriguez did not experience pain from a torn-labrum & cyst. However, the Yankee Doctors and Specialists surely must have known that this “irregularity” wouldn’t get better with time.
A-Rod swings a bat for his paycheck, and somehow we are supposed to believe that highly paid Doctors assured the Yankees that this wouldn’t continue to worsen?
So what’s going on here? There’s no reason why things should have unfolded this way. If A-Rod was unfit to play, or the cyst was causing discomfort — this should have been taken care in the off-season.
