A shooting pain in your elbow that makes your movement hard and limited might indicate elbow hyperextension.
Elbow hyperextension occurs when your elbow is bent (extended) further backward than it normally should. It can lead to blinding pain and the risk of permanent damage to the muscles, ligaments, tendons, bone or nerves in the elbow.
Let’s elaborate on elbow hyperextension injury and what a hyperextended elbow feels like.
Structure of an Elbow
The elbow has three joints:
- The humeroulnar joint
- The humeroradial joint
- The superior radioulnar joint
The Humeroulnar Joint
Imagine your elbow as a door hinge. The door is your forearm, while the hinge is your humeroulnar joint. The humeroulnar joint is responsible for flexing and extending the arm.
Just like the door hinge that opens and closes the door. The primary job of the humeroulnar joint is to allow the arm to straighten and bend easily.
The Humeroradial Joint
Imagine your elbow as a door hinge once again. Have you ever noticed the wiggling gap where the door meets the hinge? The humeroradial joint is that wiggling gap.
The humeroradial joints help you rotate your arm, allowing you to rotate your palm up and down. Basically, humeroradial joints are responsible for spinning and twisting your forearm.
Superior Radioulnar Joint
You don’t have to imagine your forearm as a door this time. However, think of it as your forearm that has two sticks. Those two sticks are radius and ulnar, placed side by side.
The superior radioulnar joint is their point of merging. The two sticks connect at the top. This joint’s main job is to let the bottom stick (radius) rotate around the top stick (ulna).
The joints allow palm up (supination) or down (pronation) rotation. The superior radioulnar joint is responsible for supination and pronation.
The normal range of motion of supination and pronation is 90 degrees in each direction so close to 180 degrees total.
What is a Hyperextended Elbow?
Overstraightening of an elbow can lead to hyperextension. When your elbow joint is bent further backward than its normal range of motion, it causes a hyperextension.
Between your elbow and the general arm structure, there are also muscles, ligaments, tissues, nerves, and bones. Any of them can be damaged by a hyperextended elbow.
Due to a hyperextended elbow, you might also experience muscle strain, ligament tear, nerve damage, and bone dislocation. That’s why it’s crucial to seek medical attention and treatment.
Caution: Permanent chronic damage to the elbow is possible without proper and timely treatment.
Symptoms of Hyperextended Elbow
The pain of a hyperextended elbow can be perceived as ordinary elbow pain. So, to eliminate the confusion among them, one must know about hyperextended elbow symptoms:
- Swelling around the elbow
- Severe pain in the elbow
- Popping sound when moving the elbow
- Reduced or limited range of movement
- Redness
- Elbow deformity
- Loss of elbow strength
- Muscle spasm
- Tingling in the fingers
- Numbness in the fingers
- Pain while touching the elbow
Causes of Hyperextended Elbow
Here are just a few of many causes of a hyperextended elbow:
- Heavy lifting
- Accident
- Significant fall
- Sudden pressure to the arm or elbow
- Poor muscle warmup when exercising
- Football/basketball
- Gymnastics
- Boxing
- Martial arts
What Does a Hyperextended Elbow Feel Like? Elbow Hyperextension Injury
Imagine you are at the stadium playing soccer. You see a soccer ball advancing towards you to kick into the back of the goal. You leap towards it but instead, slip, and fall to the ground awkwardly.
You quickly stand up as if nothing happened, but you start feeling a sharp shooting pain in your arm emanating from your elbow. You try to move your left arm only to realize it has become stiff and painful.
You look at your left arm and discover it has grown weaker and unstable. There are no sensations in the arm except excruciating pain radiating from your elbow. As you watch it swell, redness forms around your elbow. When you touch it, it is warm and hurts terribly.
The stinging sensations run up and down your arm so you rush to your nearby urgent care. After hearing the incident and performing X-rays, the doctors tell you you have hyperextended your elbow.
Your doctor will then prescribe you the required treatment for the relief of the agonizing pain.
Treatments for Elbow Hyperextension
There are several treatments for a hyperextended elbow that your doctor or physical therapist will specify. However, the common treatments are listed below:
Cold Therapy
Due to extreme pain, our muscles swell up and cause inflammation around the injury. That’s why cold therapy is preferred over heat packs.
For cold therapy, you must wrap the ice in a towel or cloth. Then, apply it to the injured area for 20 minutes and leave it to rest for 20 minutes.
After that, re-apply the ice towel for 20 minutes and repeat this routine several times a day. Prevent applying ice directly to the injury to maintain skin integrity.
RICE Method
Both treatments mentioned above are helpful and remarkable; however, the RICE method is just brilliant.
R: Stands for rest. After such a terrible incident, you should rest and give it time to heal.
I: Stands for ice. You can use the method mentioned above to ice your injury.
C: Stands for compression. Wrap your joint with the elastic bandage to prevent further elbow bending and keep it motionless.
E: Stands for elevation. Place your elbow above your heart level, and place a cushion underneath it while sitting or sleeping.
Physical Therapy
All the methods mentioned above can be done at home. However, you must consult an experienced physical therapist for physical therapy as well.
The therapist will diagnose the injury, plan a recovery program, and educate you. As experts in their field, they know all the most valuable ways to lead you toward a pain-free and speedy recovery.
Conclusion
A sudden movement that overextends your elbow can cause hyperextension. This can damage your elbow’s nerves, muscles, bones, ligaments, and joints.
Fully recovering can take several days to weeks or months depending on the severity. Consult a physical therapist to ensure a speedy and smooth recovery.
A therapist will restore strength and range of motion with soft tissue massage, joint mobilization and therapeutic exercises. They might also incorporate shockwave therapy, taping, recommend a brace, and other therapies to help you.
If you are looking for an expert physical therapist who hears your concerns, educates you about your injury, and helps you to recover it. Then look no further!
Because Biofix therapy has a well-educated, experienced, and empathetic staff that will ease your pain as if the pain never existed in the first place.
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