What Types Of Injuries Cause Elbow Pain and How Are They Treated?

Featuring Margharita Cirillo, MPT, Physiotherapist Video Title: What Types Of Injuries Cause Elbow Pain and How Are They Treated? Duration: 2 minutes, 59 seconds

There are a few different causes for elbow pain.

For example, it might include a ligament sprain, bursitis, bone injury, such as a fracture or dislocation, or maybe even a nerve irritation either local to the elbow or it might be referred from up higher from the neck, or the upper back, or the shoulder.

However, one of the most common causes for elbow pain is due to repetitive strain or overuse of the muscles of the forearm. So eventually, the muscle and tendon can become overloaded at the point at which it attaches to the tendon and this can ultimately result in pain or weakness with any hand movements as well as making everyday activities basically quite challenging to perform.

So pain felt along the outer aspect of the elbow or forearm is known as extensor tendinopathy or more commonly referred to as tennis elbow, while pain experienced on the inner aspect of the elbow or forearm is typically known as flexor tendinopathy or as golfer’s elbow.

So, playing tennis and golf are not the only reasons for experiencing tennis or golfer’s elbow. It’s typically associated with any occupational, or leisure, or sporting activities that involve any repetitive or prolonged gripping, lifting, writing, playing a musical instrument, or any activity really that involves repetitive use of the wrist or the hand.

So basically, an easy way to help you determine if you might think that you have tennis elbow is to see if you can reproduce that pain on the outside of your elbow specifically by resisting extension of your third finger.

This is a muscle that is specifically attached to this part of the elbow and therefore that muscle contraction can help to differentiate this from a different, kind of, injury such as a ligament.

So there are a few components involved in treating an elbow injury so a good person to see is your local physiotherapist. They can perform an assessment to determine where exactly your pain is coming from. And then based on that assessment they can determine an appropriate treatment plan in order to help you reduce your pain and to help regain your normal strength and function.

So they may choose to incorporate a variety of techniques as part of your treatment plan. This might involve hands on therapy such as joint mobilization or soft tissue techniques. They may use needling techniques such as acupuncture or intramuscular stimulation.

And also of importance is postural reeducation as well as a specific home exercise program in order to help you regain your – resume your regular activity levels and hopefully to prevent any future re-injury.

Video filmed in conjunction with Featuring Margharita Cirillo, MPT, Physiotherapist and HealthChoicesFirst

Presenter: Ms. Margherita Cirillo, Physiotherapist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Physiotherapist