Elbow & Wrist
A Word on Elbow, Wrist and Hand Pain
The Bad News
- Repetitive strain injuries most commonly involve the elbow, wrist and hand among active workers and athletes. Common examples include tennis elbow, golfers elbow, cubital tunnel syndrome and carpel tunnel syndrome.
- Hand and wrist pain have increased largely with an increased dependence on technology (phones, computers). Carpal tunnel syndrome is very common among working Americans (up to 8 million cases each year)
- Falls on an outstretched arm can lead to one of the more complex fractures in the body, a scaphoid fracture. Of these fractures 13-50% are unable to heal properly.
- According to a study published in 2019, 13.6% of Americans have wrist arthritis!
The Good News
- A majority of elbow, hand and wrist pain can be treated successfully and with conservative measures (no surgery or prolonged medications), using physical therapy and activity modification.
- More severe cases of elbow, wrist and hand pain that will need surgery, will recover better with a rehabilitation program before and after surgery.
- There are many useful strategies to reduce your risk of elbow, wrist and hand pain that otherwise might lead to arthritic changes and chronic tissue destruction.
Some Tips To Prevent Elbow, wrist and hand Pain
- Strengthen proximal muscles! How well you’re able to control your elbow, wrist and hand largely depend on how well you can control the joints above these areas. That would include your shoulder and shoulder blade as well as your thoracic spine. By building good strength in these areas you can improved joint control lower in the arm.
- Consider going ambidextrous! Learning to perform tasks using one arm or the other may sound like a lot of work, but research would suggest splitting the load can give valuable rest and healing time to those joints/tissues, dramatically reducing your chances of developing arthritis or chronic tissue damage.
- Work smarter not harder! We tend to spend a lot of money on entertainment, dining, and leisure. What if we invested a bit more in tools that would reduce repetitive loads on our bodies? How much do you think that would do to reduce injury and improve quality of life? Take a hard look at the tasks that are repetitive and straining with work and in your daily life and consider finding a tool that will reduce those loads and save your tissues.
- Watch your mechanics! Our body is full of mechanical levers made up of joint surfaces, connective tissue, bone and muscle. It is possible to overwhelm these mechanical levers until failure if we’re not careful, resulting in injury to any one of those tissues. Sound mechanics during activities can dramatically reduce load on the tissue and thereby reduce risk of injury.
Types of Elbow, Wrist, and Hand Pain We Treat
- Muscle Strain
- Joint Arthritis
- Degenerative Joint Disease
- Tendonitis
- Bursitis
- Tennis Elbow (lateral epicondylitis)
- Golfers Elbow (medial epicondylitis)
- Cubital Tunnel Syndrome
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Nerve Entrapment
- Trigger Finger
- De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis
- Post Surgical Procedure
- Postural Dysfunction
- Joint hypomobility (lack of joint movement)
- Joint hypermobility (to much movement)
- Post Fracture (immobilization restrictions)
Video Tips on Elbow, Wrist and Hand Pain
How to Take Action
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Every day you let pain gnaw away, is one more day you let pain weave it’s way into your narrative.
Email Us
solidrock@solidrockpt.com
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253.987.6251