Wear-and-Tear Injuries

Other injuries occur over time, as you repeat certain actions and put wear and tear on your elbow. You can injure yourself playing sports or in any number of work settings, from a factory to an office.

Bursitis: Often caused by repeating the same motion over and over, you can also get bursitis from an accident or infection. Bursa are small sacs with fluid in them. You have them in your joints to help cushion your bones, tendons, and muscles. They also help skin slide over bone. But they can get swollen and cause you pain. Often, bursitis is simply treated with pain medicine and starts to get better within a few weeks.

Tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow: These are both types of tendinitis, which means you have damage in the tendons around your elbow from overuse. Despite the names, the injuries aren’t limited to golfers or tennis players. You’re just more likely to get them based on the arm motions used in those sports. The main difference between the two is that tennis elbow affects the outside of your elbow, while golfer’s elbow affects the inside.

Trapped nerves: You might be familiar with carpal tunnel syndrome, where a nerve that passes through your wrist gets squeezed and causes some wrist and arm issues. You can have similar problems in your elbow.

If you have cubital tunnel syndrome, one of the main nerves in your arm (the ulnar nerve) gets squeezed as it runs along the inside of your elbow and passes through tissue called the cubital tunnel. You may have burning or numbness in your hand, arm, and fingers.

If you have radial tunnel syndrome, you have a similar issue with the radial nerve as it passes through the radial tunnel near the outside of your elbow. You may have burning or numbness on your outside forearm and elbow.

Stress fractures: With a stress fracture, you have a small crack in one of your arm bones, usually from overuse. They’re more common in the lower legs and feet, but athletes who throw a lot, such as baseball pitchers, can get them in the elbow, too. The pain is usually worse when throwing.