Causes & Treatment of Elbow Injury

Elbow injury is mostly caused by falls, osteoporosis, or accidents. The injury can be common in athletes especially tennis players. Therefore, many people can ask questions such as: What causes the pain? How can you treat elbow Injury? Elbow injury can be treated using home remedies, but if the pain persists it is advisable to seek medical help immediately.

What Causes Elbow Pain?

When you have an elbow injury, the major symptoms include swelling, difficulty moving your arm, redness, severe pain, and bruising around the joint. The elbow is made up of ligaments, cartilage, muscles, tendons, and bone. The pain is caused if any of these is hurt. Most of the time, it is usually the bone which has been affected. However, in most tennis players it is the tendons that are affected. Tendons help in the movement of the arm which is a significant part when playing tennis. The tendons can swell causing tendinitis which will cause elbow pain. Therefore, elbow injuries are common among tennis players.

Moreover, people who experience elbow injuries can also have problems with the elbow ligaments. The common ligament affected is the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). The ligament can only experience a slight injury or inflammation or the injury can be severe that the ligament completely tears. During throwing, the olecranon, one of the ligaments, usually is twisted with the humerus, the upper arm bone, and forced against each other.

When the elbow is used frequently, the protective cartilage on the olecranon can wear out leading to an overgrowth of bone. The overgrown bones are referred to as bone spurs. Bone spurs problem is an example of elbow injuries and they cause pain. Elbow pain can also be caused by sprains, dislocations, and strains. Elbow injuries in American Fork can be minor or they can be severe which can lead to serious issues if not treated early.

How can you treat elbow Injury?

• Elbow injuries that have been caused by falls, sprain or strains can be treated at home using various remedies such as:
• Icing the elbow. This involves placing an ice pack on the elbow for 20 to 30 minutes three times a day. This will reduce the swelling and relieve the pain.
• Compressing the elbow is important. One can use bandages to compress the elbow.
• Moreover, it is important to rest and avoid activities that easily cause elbow injuries.
• Elbow injury treatment at home involves using an elbow strap to protect the tendons from further swelling.

Elbow injuries that are severe such as bone spurs should not be given the above elbow injury treatments, but the injured person should visit a doctor for further treatment. The doctor will conduct a checkup of the motion, strength, and stability of the elbow. This will help to tell where the pain is at and how to treat it. If the pain is severe, then an X-ray will be conducted. This will give specific pictures of the fracture or bone spurs.

If the motion of the elbow is limited, a computed tomography (CT) scan is conducted to clearly define the bone spurs. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan is usually done when elbow injuries on ligaments and tendons are encountered. These injuries can have the same symptoms, thus an MR I is effective to tell the part that has been affected.

After the scanning, elbow injury treatments are employed. The treatment can be surgical or non-surgical. Non-surgical elbow injury treatments include physical therapy where the patient is put in a program that will help straighten the bones which have been probably sprained. Another non-surgical treatment is administering drugs such as Ibuprofen to reduce the swelling. An effective surgical treatment for elbow injuries is arthroscopy whereby the bone spurs and loose fragment are removed. Also, UCL can be reconstructed through surgical procedures. Therefore, elbow injury treatments are possible and they relive elbow pain completely.