Aims & Objectives:
Sporting injuries to the elbow in adolescents can be placed into two categories; overuse (e.g. little league elbow, tendinopathy, muscle strain) and traumatic (e.g. fractures, ligament strains, bursitis, dislocations). Thankfully a large number of these are rare, and therefore the aim of the following section is to address the more common injuries presenting to school health centres, and those which miss-diagnosis may have a detrimental effect on the patient.
The following section will address common elbow injuries sustained within a school sport setting, highlighting key diagnostic indicators and management strategies.
The aims of the following section therefore are:
- Understand the key anatomy of the elbow
- Develop an understanding for common elbow traumatic injuries and their mechanism, including:
- Elbow fractures
- Elbow ligament Strains
- Develop an understanding for common elbow ‘overuse’ injuries and their mechanism, including:
- Lateral epicondylitis (Tennis elbow)
- Medial epicondylitis (Golfers elbow)
- Understand key aspects of elbow injury management, including immediate care and onward referral.