Although elbow pain is common, it can greatly impact your daily life. Even the simplest tasks may feel unbearable.
Elbow pain can lead to reduced mobility in the elbow joint, affecting your ability to enjoy everyday activities. That’s why seeking early treatment is vital.
What Causes Elbow Pain?
There are many reasons for elbow pain, including overuse, injury, and even underlying medical conditions.
Your elbow is a complex joint that allows for bending and twisting motions. Three bones come together to form your elbow:
- Humerus — Your upper arm bone.
- Ulna and radius — The two bones that make up your forearm.
Cartilage surrounds the elbow joint, and ligaments hold it in place. Tendons connect it to your muscles, allowing your arm to move in different ways. For your elbow to function as it should, these parts must stay in balance — if not, you’ll have discomfort.
Elbow pain reasons can vary, but injuries to the elbow joint fall into two categories: acute or chronic.
Acute elbow injury
An acute elbow injury can happen from a fall, a jarring movement, or a direct blow to the elbow. A lifting injury — lifting too much or too often — can also cause an acute injury of the elbow, and result in a tearing or popping sensation.
If you fall and have severe elbow pain afterward, you should head to urgent care right away. It’s important for a provider to rule out a fracture or a ligament or tendon tear.
“Things that are severe on a pain scale, along with limited mobility and function, or numbness or obvious swelling, are the biggest indicators that someone should come in for immediate care,” says Nathan Formaini, DO, an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in shoulder and elbow surgery.
Chronic injury
While acute injuries happen from a specific incident, the cause of chronic elbow injuries can vary. But often, they’re from overuse or repetitive motion.
Many jobs, hobbies, and activities require repetitive movements of the hand, wrist, or arm. These can lead to chronic elbow pain.
Overuse injuries can also occur after a lifestyle change, such as a significant increase in exercise or activity.
“If someone is experiencing worsening pain, something that lasts longer than a few days or weeks with typical at-home care, that’s when they should come in to be evaluated,” says Dr. Formaini.
Common Elbow Injuries
There are many ways to injure your elbow. Whether the cause is tendonitis, arthritis, or tendon or ligament ruptures, knowing your specific symptoms helps pinpoint what’s behind your elbow pain. It can also tell you how best to treat it.
Tennis elbow
Lateral epicondylitis — or tennis elbow — is one of the most common causes of elbow pain. This overuse injury causes inflammation or degeneration of the tendons on the outside of the forearm. These tendons allow you to extend and lift your hand.
“Tennis elbow tends to appear as pain on the outer aspect of the elbow, further away from the body,” says Dr. Formaini. “Classically, it’s from the backhand swing motion used in tennis, but we see it very often in people who do a lot of desk work, like typing and writing. Probably one of the most common causes now is overuse while using a keyboard or mouse.”
Medication, bracing, and injections are common treatments for tennis elbow. If these don’t ease your elbow pain, and you have exhausted all non-operative measures, you may need surgery.
Golfer’s elbow
Another overuse injury, golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis) causes inflammation of the muscle on the inside of the elbow and severe pain. This pain can run from the bony point of your elbow farther down into your forearm.
Although it’s a common golf injury, as the name of this condition suggests, it doesn’t happen only to golfers. Any activity that requires repetitive forearm movement — such as using a screwdriver or painting — can also cause golfer’s elbow.
Golfer’s elbow differs from tennis elbow in that it appears more from doing squeezing or gripping motions, according to Dr. Formaini. Manual labor and jobs requiring more dexterity, or even hobbies that involve these types of movement, can lead to golfer’s elbow.
Conservative treatments like rest, ice, and stretching can help golfer’s elbow. You can also take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) to reduce elbow pain and inflammation.
Elbow fractures
Elbow fractures often happen during falls. It’s a reflex to brace yourself with an extended arm, but this places stress on your hands and wrists through the elbow.
A fractured elbow can make it impossible to straighten or bend your arm. People also commonly have pain, swelling, and bruising as a result.
Providers treat many elbow fractures with immobilization, meaning you wear a cast, sling, or splint while your elbow joint heals. But a severe fracture may require surgery for the best possible outcome. Doctors decide on elbow fracture treatment on a case-by-case basis, depending on the fracture and its severity.
Tendon injuries
A torn or ruptured tendon, such as a distal bicep tendon tear or distal tricep tendon tears, often occurs from lifting heavy objects. If you take on too much weight at once but don’t realize it’s too heavy until it’s too late, you may feel a pop or a tear.
Nonsurgical treatment includes a brace, physical therapy, and anti-inflammatory drugs, along with rest, ice, compression, and elevation. But sometimes, you may need surgery for a tendon injury, especially if you’re very active or play sports.
How to Prevent Elbow Pain
The best way to avoid elbow pain is to reduce your chances of injuring your elbow. Simple adjustments to daily behaviors and activities can go a long way, such as:
- Avoiding lifting more than you can handle.
- Avoiding overuse by taking breaks.
- Lifting in an ergonomic way.
- Not pushing through pain.
- Reducing your fall risk.
- Stretching before you exercise or play sports.
“Before sports, or any movement, really, we try to advocate for warm-up sessions or stretching,” says Dr. Formaini. “Keeping the elbow mobile and the muscles around it strengthened is important. A warm-up or stretching prevents the large majority of injuries.”
Treating Elbow Pain
Many people fear coming in for elbow pain treatment because they think they’ll need surgery or something else major, according to Dr. Formaini. But often, common injuries to the elbow can be treated effectively with preventative measures, therapy, or non-surgical methods.
“For overuse syndromes, eliminate the activity that aggravates your pain,” says Dr. Formaini. “This can be hard for people to do, so, when necessary, modify the movement. If it’s overuse and not injury-related, the typical treatment is ice, rest, and anti-inflammatory medication.”
Overuse conditions can also intensify chronic elbow problems like tendonitis and arthritis. Treatment may include injections, such as cortisone or platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which may also be options for issues that don’t respond to initial care.
But more severe conditions may require surgery. For instance, surgery may ensure the best outcome and recovery for ligament and tendon ruptures or fractures.
“The vast majority of problems we see are nonsurgical,” says Dr. Formaini. “That doesn’t mean they can’t be cured or corrected with surgery, too, but a lot of them won’t get to that point. A lot of chronic issues start with the easiest form of treatment, and work up to the more difficult options, depending on what the situation calls for.”
Your elbows take a lot of demand and stress. If you’ve had an elbow injury or if elbow pain doesn’t go away, consider talking to your provider.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on , and was last reviewed on .