Contracture of the elbow joint limits flexion and extension of the elbow. The elbow joint is a trochlear joint (hinge). It bends, stretches, compresses - and can bend up to 145 degrees. Elbow contracture occurs when the patient is unable to bend the elbow more than 30 degrees. This condition can also be described as joint stiffness, which quite accurately reflects the symptoms of the disease.
Stiffness can be caused by a variety of factors, including arthritis, post-traumatic complications, tendinitis, infections, degenerative conditions, and may also be congenital.
What is joint contracture
The leg at the knee or the arm at the elbow cannot bend, it is difficult to move the fingers - all these are different manifestations of the same problem, called stiffness or contracture.
Joint contracture is one of those problems that everyone faces sooner or later in life. And although the joints of the arms, for example, do not experience the same load of body weight as the joints of the legs, even a slight restriction in the mobility of the joints of the arm can prevent you from properly caring for yourself and performing the simplest movements: eating, combing your hair, brushing your teeth, etc.
Advantages of contacting Stoparthrosis
If you come in with a symptom that the arm does not fully extend at the elbow joint, then you can get the necessary help on the same day. In one session, the doctor will examine the patient, conduct diagnostics, and be able to make a diagnosis. Our own diagnostic equipment greatly simplifies and speeds up the process. There is no need to wait long and visit the clinic several times. Being able to get help and get relief from pain on the same day is a major advantage. Compared to other places, a person needs to spend a lot of time solving issues with his health.
Doctors with extensive experience work here. This is the most important component, since only an experienced physician will be able to determine the desired method of therapy. If a patient has persistent contracture of the elbow joint, then it can be cured in several ways, depending on the characteristics of the disease. More than 10 years of practice with specialists inspires more confidence in success.
Availability of skilled surgeons who can cut out the remaining pieces of broken bone and help with other serious problems when a conservative solution cannot be used. A circle of specialists guarantees the implementation of any method of therapy, regardless of complexity.
How do we treat contracture?
Before attempting to restore movement in a joint, it is necessary to eliminate the cause of its limitation. For example, if the contracture is the result of an injury, you first need to find out what kind of injury it is and how much it limits the movement of the joint.
It is impossible to begin treatment for contracture without clarifying the diagnosis! This can only increase the pain and complicate the disease.
If the cause of contracture is damage to the nerves that cause contraction of the joint muscles, then the activity of these nerves must first be restored. And if contracture occurs due to muscle damage, then treatment should be aimed at restoring these muscles, and only then at eliminating the contracture itself.
Even the longest existing contractures after paralysis and paresis, severe fractures and dislocations, rheumatoid arthritis, burns and frostbite can be eliminated or significantly reduced by using early and comprehensive treatment.
Such treatment may include special therapeutic exercises, physiotherapy, and massage. Our center’s specialists have developed a unique set of joint exercises that can significantly increase body mobility. This complex is also successfully used in the prevention of contractures.
You can find out about our other treatment methods here.
Causes of post-traumatic contracture of the shoulder, elbow, knee and other joints
As the name suggests, restriction of movement occurs due to traumatic damage to components of the musculoskeletal system - bones, tendons, fascia, joints, ligaments, muscles and/or surrounding tissues, such as skin and subcutaneous tissue, blood vessels and nerves. According to statistics, limb injuries lead to the development of contractures in seventy percent of cases.
By nature, these can be knife and gunshot wounds, bruises, fractures, dislocations, burns; injuries of the skull and spine. For example, when the integrity of the skin and deeper connective tissue structures - muscles, ligaments, tendons - is violated, limited mobility occurs due to scar changes over the joint. Scars tighten tissues and promote the formation of adhesions; the latter create the so-called additional fixation points are obstacles to free movement.
Contractures due to gunshot injuries are considered the most difficult. Because in this case, along with the integumentary and musculoskeletal structures, blood vessels and nerves are damaged.
Impaired blood circulation in tissues is a significant factor in the formation of contractures. It can be a consequence of edema, disruption of the integrity of large vessels, compression of them with a tourniquet or plaster cast, etc. This type of movement restriction develops very quickly (within a few hours) in contrast to scar deformities, which take months to form.
Another important factor is pain - a provocateur of protective contractures. It can lead to long-term limitation of movement even in the absence of serious tissue damage.
Limitation of mobility in one or more joints can also be caused by prolonged forced immobilization of the injured limb. In this case, changes occur in the joint capsule (loss of elasticity, wrinkling, thickening, adhesions, etc.), replacement of muscles with connective tissue, etc.
Contracture is not only provoked by tissue damage, but also causes it (muscle atrophy, growth retardation, subluxation, deformation of bone and joint structures).
Often, mobility impairments develop over time in the joints adjacent to the initially damaged joint and are compensatory in nature. According to this mechanism, for example, contracture of the knee joint occurs due to hip injury.
What causes joint contracture?
Congenital joint contractures are rare. These include clubfoot.
In most cases, movements of one or another part of the body may be limited after various injuries, injuries, or diseases. For example, after damage to intra-articular or periarticular tissues (fracture, sprain, dislocation), a scar may develop that interferes with the normal movement of the joint.
Post-traumatic swelling of the joint capsule often makes limb movement impossible. This often happens after a sprain.
Stiffness can also occur due to stress or trauma to the nervous system. For example, some people, after long-term experiences, experience a jammed neck, or after a stroke, their legs move poorly.
The most common disease that limits the movement of the joints of the hand is rheumatoid arthritis.
Rehabilitation of the elbow joint
carries out various types of joint rehabilitation, including rehabilitation of the elbow joint.
We accept patients of any severity after discharge from the hospital and achieve complete restoration of the function of the elbow joint. Anatomically, the most complex joint in the human body is the elbow. It is composed of the radius, ulna and humerus, which gives the joint high mobility. The joint has a very complex structure. It contains several small joints that provide proper free movement. It's all held together by a system of tendons. The entire structure is permeated with nerves and blood vessels. Therefore, injuries to the elbow joint are usually very severe, they take a long time and are painful, and if proper rehabilitation is not carried out, the consequences remain for life.
Rehabilitation of the elbow joint is extremely difficult, even though it is easy to immobilize the injured area and examine the injured area. There are a number of techniques for restoring the elbow joint, and non-invasive treatment methods, such as exercise therapy and physical therapy, are rapidly developing.
Reconstruction of the elbow joint today, even despite the great technological progress in modern medicine, remains largely unchanged. Particularly difficult is the timely diagnosis and prevention of the inflammatory process, in which rehabilitation becomes significantly more complicated and the likelihood of new exacerbations appears. Against this background, the importance of physical therapy (physical therapy) as a universal and time-tested method is increasing.
Selection of a specific method of exercise therapy, exercises and determination of the duration of the entire rehabilitation process after injury to the elbow are only part of the tasks that fall on the rehabilitation physician. There are dozens of sets of exercises, so-called schemes, which can be replaced with one another as they are used. They are not universal; the effectiveness of certain sets of exercises is directly related to the patient’s age, the nature of the damage to the elbow joint, general health and other details. Considering the complexity of this science, it is categorically not recommended to carry out rehabilitation on your own, but to carry it out under the supervision of rehabilitation specialists.
With prolonged immobilization, muscle tissue and joints in the human body inevitably atrophy. The peculiarity of the structure of the elbow joint is such that immobilization has a particularly detrimental effect on it - it can result in decreased mobility for the rest of life. Irreversible consequences of injury are designed to prevent such measures as:
- Massage;
- Kinesitherapy – development of joints;
- Interference therapy – stimulation with currents; aimed at reducing tissue swelling;
- Phonophoresis is an ultrasonic effect that stimulates the regenerative function of tissues.
To restore the elbow joint, it is also possible to use passive methods, for example, tape. Recently, the use of tapes has increased; they are designed not only to relieve pain during exercise therapy, but also to prevent muscle spasms and, to some extent, relieve swelling.
We note once again that, due to their complex anatomical structure, injured elbow joints are especially in need of professional rehabilitation. And a huge role in this is played by the patient’s very desire to overcome the injury without consequences, his motivation and willingness to listen to the professional advice of doctors.
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Gym and Wi-Fi
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Air conditioning and TV
We provide comfortable living conditions for all our guests. Try staying for at least a week and you will love it!
Medical equipment
We have all the necessary equipment to maintain your health, and our attentive staff will provide assistance if necessary.
Board games and books
A large selection of books and board games is freely available for our guests. The staff gives regular health lectures.
Which contracture is more dangerous: immobilization or post-traumatic?
Immobilization contracture most often occurs as a consequence of post-traumatic contracture. A simple example: when any part of the body (arm, leg, finger) is damaged, severe pain inevitably occurs, and a person unconsciously chooses a position for the injured limb in which the pain will be less. Most often this is an unnatural, incorrect position. But the damaged joint gradually gets used to it, and after a while it becomes very difficult, if not completely impossible, to change the position. This is immobilization contracture resulting from injury.
After two to three weeks, leaving the limb in the wrong position can lead to irreversible changes that can only be cured with joint replacement surgery.
Stages of joint rehabilitation
Experts practice dividing the entire recovery period of the elbow joint after a fracture into three stages:
- First - start on the second or third day after removal of the plaster; consists of breathing exercises and careful movements of the joints of the limb recovering from a fracture - bends, periodic muscle tension. In the first period of rehabilitation, the patient undergoes a series of diagnostic procedures that give the attending physician the opportunity to correctly draw up a rehabilitation plan. The doctor may prescribe an arteriogram, x-ray, or consultation with a neurologist, since its treatment depends on the type of fracture. Each patient's pulse, body temperature and blood pressure must be monitored.
- The second is recovery after fractures of the elbow joint due to more thorough loads. Exercises such as “shoulder rolling”, exercises with a ball, stretching of joints are practiced; an important part of the second stage is daily warming baths.
- The third is physical therapy, including compresses, heating, and electrical stimulation. They resort to it if the joints could not recover 100 percent after the first two stages.
In order to quickly heal a fracture, physical activity should be regular, ideally done twice a day, with 5 approaches per exercise. Breaks are permissible only in cases of increased fatigue and severe pain. Rehabilitation of the elbow joint after a fracture is not a quick process and requires a lot of patience not only from patients, but also from doctors. But if all medical prescriptions are followed, it is usually crowned with success.
Diagnostics
The diagnosis is determined on the basis of a general history.
In the case of a mechanical nature of the damage or injury, the bruise site is bandaged with an elastic bandage, and if necessary, a therapeutic blockade is performed. If pinched nerves are suspected, the patient is referred for consultation to a neurologist or neurosurgeon. After the examination, radiography is used, which is necessary to determine the violation of the integrity of bone structures and cartilage. It is possible to conduct magnetic resonance imaging, which is used after x-rays for advanced diagnostics.
False joint: treatment
To treat a non-united fracture, an individual method is selected for each patient. However, in all cases, surgical intervention is necessary to eliminate the newly formed connective tissue with subsequent fixation of bone fragments.
At the earliest stage, low-traumatic reduction of fragments with fixation using a properly selected titanium clamp is possible.
If cartilaginous tissue begins to form at the ends of bone fragments, it is removed surgically, and plastic surgery is performed on the ends of parts of one bone to lengthen them and subsequently fuse them together.
Recently, endoprosthetics and intramedullary osteosynthesis are very often used for ununited fractures. This greatly increases the likelihood of bone healing and restoration of limb function.
If you have questions about the treatment of non-united fractures (false arthrosis), you can ask them by phone +7 (905) 640-64-27 or in a message from the Contacts section. I will answer shortly.
Disease prevention
As an excellent preventive measure that can prevent the occurrence of pathological processes in the elbow joint, it is recommended:
- systematic moderate load on the joint;
- giving up bad habits;
- protection of the elbow joint from mechanical damage during professional activities or sports;
- saturating the daily diet with vegetables and fruits high in vitamins and beneficial microelements.
IMPORTANT! When the first signs of the disease appear, consult a specialist. Remember that self-medication can not only aggravate the situation, but also cause serious harm to the body, which can cause irreversible consequences
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How is rehabilitation of the elbow joint different after a dislocation?
Very often, people who have suffered a dislocation of the elbow joint underestimate the danger of this injury. And this is a big mistake. Rehabilitation of a dislocation is no less complex a process than recovery from a fracture, and it can only be entrusted to very qualified and experienced doctors in a reputable medical facility. center.
The complexity of such an injury is that the complaints of patients are completely different. This means that recovery must be different for each patient.
Treatment for a dislocated elbow joint consists of restoring motor functions. The doctor usually prescribes exercise therapy to develop the elbow and other procedures that activate the joint.
