A major league pitcher fracturing his arm throwing a pitch is based on the true story of SF Giants pitcher Dave Dravecky who snapped his humerus pitching in a game in 1989 after undergoing cancer surgery in the off-season.
House states that ironically, the treatment for Addison's disease is steroids. The type of steroids athletes use to gain muscle mass are anabolic steroids, which are a type of sex hormone that stimulates muscle growth. In Addison's disease, a person's adrenal glands don't produce cortisol, an essential component of adrenaline. The treatment is corticosteroids, a synthetic version of cortisol. While having similar chemical structures, anabolic steroids and corticosteroids have very different functions and effects.
The fancy black and silver cane featured in All In (2006) (season 2, episode 17) made its first appearance in this episode. House uses it when he goes to the monster truck rally.
Both Scott Foley and Meredith Monroe were regulars on Dawson's Creek (1998). Foley played Cliff Elliot, while Monroe played Andie McPhee.
The character of Hank Wiggen may be a reference to the fictional pitcher Henry Wiggen, who appeared in a series of novels by author Mark Harris. Paul Newman played Henry Wiggen in The United States Steel Hour version of one of Harris's stories, "Bang the Drum Slowly", and by Michael Moriarty in the feature film of the same name.