An elbow hyperextension is an extremely painful injury. It occurs when the elbow joint is bent backwards outside its natural range of motion.
This type of injury tends to occur most frequently among individuals who play contact sports like football, soccer or rugby. However, it can in principle occur whenever you extend your arm to catch your body weight when falling.
The injury is usually accompanied by a popping sound and immediate elbow pain. Mild or moderate hyperextension injuries of the elbow can be treated by resting the elbow joint for a few weeks. However, the most serious injuries of this type must be treated by surgical intervention.
The elbow is the point of intersection of three bones:
The elbow contains three joints corresponding to the three points of intersection of these bones.
An elbow hyperextension occurs when the joint at which the humerus and ulnar bones intersect (the humeroulnar joint) is bent backwards.
The most frequent causes of this injury are:
The following factors will tend to increase the chances of hyperextending your elbow:
The typical symptoms you experience with a hyperextended elbow include:
Many of these symptoms are similar to those you would experience from a strained or sprained elbow.
A hyperextended elbow is a potentially serious injury. If you are experiencing the symptoms above, you should contact a healthcare professional for medical advice as soon as possible.
To diagnose your elbow injury and decide whether it is a hyperextension, your doctor may take the following steps:
The doctor may conclude that you have indeed suffered a hyperextended elbow. In this case, the treatment will depend on the severity of the injury.
You may have experienced only mild or moderate soft tissue damage (and no bone fracture or other damage). If so, the treatment will likely utilize the R.I.C.E. strategy:
Once healing of your elbow is underway, you will be referred to a physical therapist. This healthcare professional will devise a program of forearm and elbow stretching and strengthening exercises. The goal will be to prepare you for a return to normal physical activities with less risk of reinjury.
If your elbow hyperextension involves either complete rupturing of ligaments, muscle or tendons, or bone damage, surgery will be indicated.
The surgeon will need to repair severely damaged (e.g. ruptured) soft tissues as well as any bone damage you may have.
As with conservative treatments, immobilization of your elbow will be an important part of ensuring a full recovery. However, the period of immobilization will need to be longer in this case. It may be several weeks or months compared to just a few weeks for a conservative treatment.
Physical therapy will again be an important stage of the treatment process. However, you will likely require more time for this therapy than with a non surgical treatment strategy.
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The Mueller Sports Medicine Elastic Bandage is a high quality cotton and elastic bandage. A highly versatile bandage that you can use to treat muscle/ligament strains and sprains as well as bone fractures.
The Mueller Sports Medicine Elbow Sleeve offers compression and soothing warmth to help promote healing from general elbow injuries. Fits either elbow.
The DynaPro Reusable Cold & Hot Compress is a versatile non-toxic compress that you can use for both hot and cold therapies and for treatment of both acute and chronic injuries.
Calko Woven Elastic Wraps are reinforced bandages offering stretch as well as compression. Useful for treating muscle/ligament strains and tendon sprains, holding hot and cold packs or other bandages in place as well as other therapeutic applications.
