Treatments for Elbow Pain

At St. Elizabeth Healthcare, we are committed to finding a treatment that helps to relieve your elbow pain, and the good news is you don’t always need surgery. Should you need surgery, our nationally recognized Orthopaedic team offers highly specialized care to help relieve you from pain. 

Nonsurgical Elbow Pain Treatments

Our specialists will talk through all of your care options including nonsurgical treatments. Your physician may prescribe a combination of exercises and physical therapy along with anti-inflammatory medicines to get the most effective combination of treatments. 

• Exercise and physical therapy – improves muscle strength and flexibility; helps to reduce elbow pain.
• Anti-inflammatory medications – non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) help relieve mild to moderate elbow pain by reducing inflammation. 
• Injections – a corticosteroid (cortisone shot) can be given directly into the joint to reduce inflammation and pain.
• Bracing or splinting – stabilizing the elbow can help improve elbow pain, especially when used with a combination of other non-surgical treatments.

Surgical Elbow Pain Treatments 

Our affiliated surgeons have the expertise and experience you want when it comes to making the choice for elbow surgery. Some conditions such tendon or muscle tears usually require surgery. Surgical options may include:

• Open tendon repair – repair the small tendon tears at the elbow in addition to removing diseased muscle and reattaching healthy muscle back to bone.
• Arthorscopic tendon repair – a minimally invasive approach to repairing tendons in the elbow. This approach makes healing and recovery much easier.
• Tommy John surgery – reconstructs the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) using a donated tendon or one from somewhere else in your body.
• Cubital tunnel surgery – an outpatient procedure that uses a small incision to relieve pressure on the ulnar nerve in your elbow.