Knowing What Problem Is Helps Langston Prepare for Cure

For more than four years, Angel team orthopedist Dr. Lewis Yocum has kept a loose watch on the “loose bodies” in Mark Langston’s left elbow. Monday morning, he decided they would have to be removed.

Langston, who has been on the disabled list only once during his 10-plus major league seasons, will have surgery for the first time in his life at about noon today at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood. Yocum is hoping he’ll only have to remove a couple of those loose bodies--bone chips--in an arthroscopic procedure that could allow Langston to resume his spot in the rotation by the last week in May.

“We’ve known about the bone chips since he came here,” Yocum said, “but there are a lot of pitchers out there with bone chips and they’re not a problem until they become symptomatic. For the first time, Mark’s chips are now floating around and causing trouble.”

Yocum said a preventive procedure in the off-season--or before Langston signed a three-year, $14-million contract in February--was never considered.

“We knew it was something that could occur, but it wasn’t like we were waiting around to jump into surgery,” Yocum said. “He hadn’t missed a start in five years.

“We periodically checked it (with X-rays), but there were no previous indications or warnings. It’s the ‘If it ain’t broken don’t fix it theory.’ If the chips aren’t bothering him, it’s pretty hard to talk a guy into a surgery.”

Langston, who saw his bone chips on the X-rays taken after he was first examined in Minnesota, said he was “pretty much geared up” for Monday’s news that surgery would be required.

“I’m actually relieved because now that I know they’re there, now that I’ve seen them, I would just as soon have them taken out,” he said.

Langston felt no discomfort last Tuesday during or after his victory opening day, when he pitched 7 2/3 innings. He thought maybe bumping the elbow on a chair in his hotel was a factor, but it wasn’t until the next day that the elbow “locked up” in the clubhouse.

“Banging it on the chair may have been a minor factor,” Yocum said. “Pitching baseballs is probably the major factor.”

Yocum, who performed similar procedures on former Angel pitchers John Candelaria and Kirk McCaskill, said if everything goes as expected and there is no ligament or nerve damage, there is every reason to believe that in six weeks Langston will be the same pitcher he was before the surgery.

“We’ll know more when we get in there and see how many pieces and how many changes there are in the elbow,” Yocum said. “But if there is no other damage, then the percentage of pitchers who come back throwing as hard as ever is relatively high.

“Later this week, we’ll begin working on his range of motion and then start him on exercises next week. And Mark has an advantage in that he’s both well-conditioned and physically strong.

“He asked me how soon he could get on the bike and I told him he could start on Wednesday.”

Langston said he is neither afraid nor worried.

“I’ve been very fortunate to go as long as I have without a major injury,” he said, “and the chips are in the back of the elbow, in an easy place to get to. And the way it happened, the way they just sort of fell into place while I was walking, isn’t as scary as if I’d thrown a pitch.”