How to recover from elbow joint stiffness

People's joints will undergo some changes as they age, such as arthritis and some joint diseases. The elbow joint is a very important joint in the arm. If there is a problem with it, it will affect daily movements and work. Some people may have difficulty straightening their elbows. It is necessary to understand the cause. If it is a functional joint disease, rehabilitation training can be used to correct it.

Elbow range of motion exercises and rehabilitation treatment is a long process, and it is difficult to have a prescribed exercise schedule. If certain surgeries have special requirements for angle exercises, the doctor will generally inform you specifically after the surgery. Because organizational conditions vary widely from person to person, responses during practice will vary widely. You must not blindly pursue progress. You should gradually increase the angle without increasing joint swelling and pain, increasing it by 1-2° each time you treat it, until you can see significant progress every week. Otherwise, serious adverse consequences such as myositis ossificans may occur! You should observe at all times, especially as the amount of exercise increases, pay close attention to the swelling and pain in the joints, and absolutely avoid forcing yourself to exercise by enduring pain. At the same time, violent massage is absolutely prohibited.

Joint dysfunction:

After an injury to the elbow joint itself, or a fracture of the surrounding area, such as a humeral fracture or forearm fracture, a certain degree and duration of immobilization is required during treatment. Common ones include "triangular bandage" hanging protection, plaster fixation, splint or brace protection, etc.

Either way, there will be inflammation and immobilization of the soft tissues surrounding the elbow joint. This will cause changes in the morphology, structure, biomechanics, etc. of the muscles, ligaments, joint capsules and other tissues around the elbow joint, resulting in joint adhesion and atrophy of the muscles around the elbow joint.

After adhesion of the elbow joint, the main manifestation is limitation of the flexion and extension function of the elbow joint. But in fact, if only the extension of the elbow joint is limited, it will not have a big impact on the function. It will just make the arm look ugly if it is not straight. However, if the forearm's pronation and supination are also restricted at the same time, it will seriously affect daily life.

For example, when washing your face, your forearm must be able to supinate so that you can wipe your face with your palm facing up; when eating, you must hold the bowl with your palm facing up; and when writing with a pen or picking up things with chopsticks, you must pronate your forearm to complete these tasks! If you can't bend your arms, the problem is of course more serious. Even if you have food in your hands, you can't put it in your mouth if you can't bend your arms! Every time I eat, I have to stretch my neck to find something, which is really painful and unsightly!

In response to these functional disorders and limited elbow joint range of motion, rehabilitation treatment and functional exercises must be performed to improve and restore function!

Precautions for rehabilitation treatment of elbow adhesion:

The elbow joint is very prone to myositis ossificans, which in layman's terms means that calcium salts are deposited in soft tissues such as muscles and grow into bones! This is a very scary complication. Just imagine, if soft tissue turns into bone, how can the joints move? As to why the elbow joint is prone to this serious problem, the mechanism is not very clear, but the facts are absolutely beyond doubt, so it must not be taken lightly! Don't increase the amount of practice on your own, and don't use violence. The angle improvement in one practice will be too great!