Elbow osteochondritis dissecans (OCD)

[Gym Monkey]

My daughter has just been diagnosed with osteochondritis dissecans of her elbow. She is 13 years old, and has been a WAG competitive gymnast for 5 years. She is currently in ALP 8, and had been training 16 hours a week.
She is having surgery next week to have some loose cartilage removed and to see whether there is any further cartilage or bone damage.
I have found some threads from USA about this condition, but has anyone in Australia had any experience? I am particularly interested in whether it is possible to come back from this, and over what period of time.

 

[bookworm]

Well I'm not in Australia but when my daughter was 11, she had the same diagnosis, and had the surgery to remove the loose cartilage fragments ( and also had microfracture surgery to stimulate cartilage regrowth) ...she was level 9 at the time. We rested 6 months as instructed, she did PT twice a week and returned to competition better than ever...moved up to Level 10 and never had another issue with the OCD.....tore her ACL 6 years later, and that was what ended her gymnastics, not the OCD..

 

[Azgymmiemom]

My son is going through this right now. They are debating whether to let him heal on his own with no weight bearing, or to do surgery. He's scheduled for surgery in April, but will have more x rays in March to see if he's healing on his own.
They told me prognosis is based on his ability to heal. Anywhere from 3 months to a year.
He was training level 10 when this happened, if it makes amy difference...

 

[Gym Monkey]

Thanks for your replies. Bookworm, it is great that your daughter was able to come back from this injury. That give us some hope, but we won't be making any big decisions quite yet. She will continue doing legs, core and no hands skills after her surgery. Her coach has worked out a no-hands beam and floor routine that she can do at a team comp in a few months time, so she is happy about that, as it gives her something to work towards.
Azgymmiemom I hope your son is able to overcome this injury also.
It seems like this is not a common injury (I guess there's a far smaller gymnastics population in Australia). I feel as though our kids have been pretty unlucky! At least this is an injury you can recover from completely, even if it takes a long time. Our main priority is to have this treated properly and making sure she has no long-term issues with her elbow.

 

[JoyAvenueMom]

A girl at our gym had this diagnosed in the fall and had surgery. She was 13 and training Level 9. She has continued to o everything the doctor would allow, but will be restricted for quite a while. Just this past weekend, she competed a no-handed L9 floor routine and scored a 9.4. (all front tumbling) She will now be allowed to compete at state as an "event specialist". There was another girl from our gym who had the same diagnosis several years ago, She returned and went on to compete D1. She as been the role model for our current team mate.