In an individual’s daily life, a few of the joints that get the most amount of movement throughout the day are the elbow, wrist and the hand. Activities such as eating, typing, writing, dressing require great usage of these joints. If you have any pain or dysfunction in any of these joints, you will have difficulty performing these activities and will be limited.
Causes of Pain
Elbow pain can typically arise from performing repeated movements; most common diagnoses are:
- Tennis Elbow – most common injury; could be caused due to small tears of the tendons in the muscles that attach to the forearm muscles
- Golfer’s Elbow
- Arthritis
- Bursitis
- Osteoarthritis
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Tendonitis
- Cubital Tunnel Syndrome – tingling/numbness in the ring and pinky fingers accommodated with pain and weakness
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – decreased grip strength, swelling in hand, pain in wrist and hand
How can Physical Therapy help?
A physical therapist will perform an evaluation which assesses the motion and strength and will also help you identify the source of the pain. Manual therapy techniques and modalities such as electrical stimulation, laser and ultrasound can be used to eliminate the pain. Once the pain is taken care of, you will be working on improving your range of motion, flexibility as well as strength. The main goal of your physical therapist is to get rid of the inflammation, pain and get you back to normal pain-free activity again.