Arm, elbow injuries caused by overuse on the rise this time of year according to orthopaedic experts
Monday, December 12, 2022

by Liz Bonis, WKRC

Click HERE to see the full article.

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - If you notice your shoulders, arms, or elbows are hurting, it might be a common problem that happens with overuse injuries.

Sports medicine specialists at OrthoCincy says they are seeing a lot of arm and elbow injuries this time of year. It often results in what we call tennis elbow, even though you can get it from a lot more than playing tennis.

“It certainly can happen without a trigger, often times people can associate some sort of change in activity, taking up a new sport like tennis, I myself suffered from it when I was on my rotation of my residency doing a lot of hammering and malleting putting in joint replacements,” said Dr. Trevor Stefanski.

Dr. Trevor Stefanski says tennis elbow is usually the result of repetitive motion or strenuous activity.

“It’s one of the most common elbow problems that I see,” said Dr. Stefanski.

Generally, for those diagnosed with it, he will start with a physical therapy recommendation to try and rebuild around the areas torn down.

"In general, it is caused by small microtears in what we call the common extensor origin when we start getting tears in that area or degenerative changes in that area, it can make it painful with wrist extension and gripping," said Dr. Stefanski.

Other therapies include steroid shots along with PRP, or platelet rich plasma therapy.

It takes a tube of your own blood, separates the cells from the plasma, and then reinjects the part of the blood needed to heal damaged tissue around it.

Dr. Stefanski says healing can happen for some within weeks but for others he says it is sometimes more than a year before the pain is gone and full activity can be picked back up.

To learn more about Dr. Stefanski and other OrthoCincy physicians, click HERE.