Arm & Elbow Injuries

Falls, car accidents, overuse and other trauma can lead to a host of arm and elbow injuries. Several of these injuries take up to several months to heal, with recovery time often longer for adults than children.

Broken Arm

• Among the most common arm injuries are breaks and fractures. Midwest Orthopaedics, affiliated with Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, says 20 percent of all arm bone breaks involve the upper arm bone, or humerus, but children run a higher risk of breaking lower arm bones (radius and ulna). Children's breaks tend to heal more quickly than the same injury in adults.

  Snapping noises followed by extreme pain exacerbated by movement characterize these injuries. Be prepared to wait several weeks to several months for healing in a cast. Doctors may need to move some pieces of bone back into place before setting the cast, so brace yourself if suffering from one of these injuries.

Elbow and Olecranon Fractures

• Elbow fractures in adults tend to follow car accidents or severe falls. Fractures around elbow joints in children often result from falling onto outstretched arms while playing. Sudden intense pain, numbness in one or more fingers, tenderness and swelling are symptomatic of this type of injury. Direct blows to the elbow or falling on a bent arm can break the olecranon, the very pointy tip of the elbow. Elbow fractures typically require surgery.

Radial Head Fractures

• Forward-facing falls trigger a natural instinct to extend arms to alleviate the impact. This instinct creates prime conditions for radial head fractures. Midwest Orthopaedics says this type of fracture occurs in about 20 percent of all acute elbow injuries. These types of fractures, which involve breaks in the smaller bone of the forearm, often accompany elbow dislocations.

Overuse Injuries

• Overdoing certain activities that place excessive stress on arms or elbow joints can lead to overuse injuries. One type of overuse injury, bursitis, occurs when the sack of fluid that cushions and lubricates the joint areas swells, bringing pain with it.

  Tendinitis, another common overuse injury, is caused by swelling of the tendons that connect muscles to bone. A similar injury, tendinosis, occurs when the connective tissue in and around the tendons swell. Sometimes, pressure on the nerves of the arms and hands causes carpel tunnel syndrome, with symptoms including weakness and numbness in fingers.

Age As a Factor

• As adults age, they become more at risk for broken bones and other arm and elbow injuries because they have less muscle mass and bone strength. Osteoporosis is a condition in adults involving this loss of bone strength and density. Older adults often are more unsteady on their feet than youths, contributing to more falls that cause arm and elbow injuries.