Elbow Pain/Injury

Is an Elbow Injury or Elbow Pain Serious?

The elbow joint is a complex synovial hinge joint that allows you to extend and flex your arm. When you damage the joint due to a fall, automotive accident, sports injury, disease or other reason, it leads to elbow pain that affects your ability to do normal activities, including working. Hurting your elbow, therefore — whether it’s damage to the bones, muscles or connective tissues — can be a serious condition.

At New York Pain Care, Dr. Amr Hosny and an experienced team of pain management doctors rely on state-of-the-art medical technology to discover exactly what’s wrong with your elbow so they can provide exceptional elbow pain treatments. Find them at one their three offices in New York City: Midtown Manhattan, Greenwich Village and the Financial District. They also have five more offices in northern New Jersey: Paramus, East Brunswick, Riverdale, Englewood Cliffs and Cranford.

How Can I Hurt My Elbow?

There are many different ways to injure your elbow that can lead to incapacitating elbow pain. These injuries result from repetitive strain during sports or overuse of your elbow muscles at work. Common elbow injuries that require immediate diagnosis and treatment include:

• Sports injury
• Sprains and strains
• Tennis elbow
• Elbow dislocation
• Stress fracture
• Flexor tendinitis, causing inner elbow pain
• Wear-and-tear injuries
• Golfer’s elbow, affecting the inner tendons in the elbow
• Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) Injury, causing ulnar neuropathy, which leads to pain or numbness in your hands
• Valgus extension overload (VEO)

While an elbow injury can happen to anyone at nearly any age, some activities and conditions put you more at risk. Common risk factors for elbow injuries include:

• Playing sports that require throwing, such as baseball
• Engaging in sports that tax the elbow, like tennis and golf
• Working at jobs like painting and industrial work
• Having arthritis
• Overtaxing your elbow while doing your hobbies

Are There Other Causes of Elbow Pain?

If you haven’t suffered an injury and you’re in pain, you need an accurate diagnosis to identify the condition causing your elbow pain. Some conditions that may be causing your elbow pain include:

• Elbow bursitis
• Arthritis in the elbow joint
• Panner’s disease that’s caused by dislodged pieces of cartilage and bone
• Cubital tunnel syndrome caused by pressure or stretching of the ulnar nerve
• Degenerative causes that come with advancing age
• Gout and pseudogout
• Repetitive motion disorder
• De Quervain’s tenosynovitis, which is a wrist tendon condition
• Elbow tendonitis
• Autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis

Dr. Hosny is a Harvard-trained pain specialist. As a skilled pain management doctor, he examines your elbow and conducts imaging tests to reach a correct diagnosis before starting treatment for elbow pain. Diagnosis is always the first step toward treatment.

What Are the Symptoms of an Elbow Injury?

You may suspect you’ve injured your elbow if you experience such symptoms as:

• A protruding bone
• Pain when moving your elbow, making a fist or grasping an object
• Swelling and bruising at the elbow joint
• Elbow stiffness
• Elbow weakness
• A lack of flexibility and strength
• A dull ache
• Soreness around injury
• Problems with coordination
• A poor grip
• A reduced range of motion

There’s a wide range of causes of elbow pain. Each requires unique elbow injury treatment. At New York Pain Care, most elbow injuries can be treated successfully without surgery.

How Is Elbow Pain Treated?

For effective repetitive motion disorder pain treatment and other elbow pain remedies, get an early diagnosis. Delaying a diagnosis can lead to further damage of your elbow muscles, ligaments, bones and support. After reaching a diagnosis, your doctor usually recommends interventional treatment options such as:

• Rest. If you’re an active athlete or you use your hands a lot at work, your doctor may recommend rest to promote healing in the injured tissues. This is an effective elbow tendon injury treatment option.
• Pain medications. Pain relievers, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories all help reduce pain and swelling in your elbow. Pain medication forms part of a baseball elbow pain treatment.
• Icing. Using an ice pack on the swollen and bruised elbow site reduces swelling and relieves pain.
• Rehab exercises and physical therapy. These exercises not only relieve tension in case of a muscle sprain or strain, but also build strength in the elbow joint and connective tissues.
• Shockwave therapy. This advanced pain treatment works by sending shockwaves to injured soft tissues in your elbow for pain relief. The technique also promotes healing as part of a medial elbow pain treatment.
• Elbow immobilization. Reducing movement of the injured joint — using bracing, taping, wrapping or splinting — reduces pain and promotes faster healing of the joint.
• Elbow injections. A cortisone shot directly into the affected muscles reduces inflammation and kills the pain.
• Surgery. This is always the last option for large muscle or connective tissue tears in your elbow. Minimally invasive surgery can remove inflamed tissues and fix tendon tears.

Due to the complexity, mobility and function of your elbow, an injury or joint pain requires specialized treatment. Contact the team at New York Pain Care to get elbow injury treatment at one of their eight locations.