Definition
The elbow is the intermediate articular system of the upper limb, located between the arm and forearm.
Like all joints, the elbow is also subject to trauma and effort.
The most common painful affection is epicondylitis, also known as "tennis elbow"; it is an inflammation that results from the repeated stress of the tendons that allow the muscles to extend the fingers of the hand and the wrist. The inflammatory process involves, in particular, the humeral epicondyle and the tendon structures of the extensor (long and short) of the carpus. In epicondylitis, pain affects the outside of the elbow and is accentuated when the patient tries to firmly grasp an object with his hand or with some movements in which supination or forced pronation is added (for example, opening a bottle, turning the handle of a door or lifting weights). In addition, pain can be evoked by pressure on the epicondyle.
When there is pain in the inside of the forearm, however, it could be "golfer's elbow" or epitrocleite . Also in this case, the disturbance concerns those who perform repetitive movements, above all of a rotary type (eg using a screwdriver to screw) or is exposed, for occupational reasons, to the repeated stresses of a pneumatic hammer.
If the patient reports pain in the forearm and tingling in the 4th and 5th fingers, the ulnar nerve may be affected, which can be compressed by the bone structure of the elbow. This disorder mainly affects people who have a valgus elbow (open to the outside) or who suffer from traumas or rheumatoid arthritis.
The pain in the elbow associated with a certain rigidity, instead, can represent the consequence of an arthrosis, a process that is established by the progressive deterioration of the articular surfaces, limiting the movement.
Rheumatic diseases, traumas that cause bleeding or crystal deposits (such as calcium salts and uric acid), on the other hand, can be the basis of an inflammation of a synovial bursa (a structure that covers the bony projections near the joints). In addition to the pain in the elbow, the bursitis can be felt as a "ball" under the skin.
Furthermore, elbow pain can be caused by fractures, cervical pathology (arthrosis, hernia etc.) or shoulder (scapulohumeral periarthritis).
Possible Causes * of Elbow Pain
- Arthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Arthrosis
- Cervical osteoarthritis
- Bursitis
- epicondylitis
- Epitroclea
- Slipped disc
- Tendinitis
- tenosynovitis
