Surgery for a stiff elbow restores the range in theatre; the six weeks afterwards decide how much you keep. The elbow scars faster than any joint in the arm, so a week of resting it because it hurts can undo the whole operation.
Cubital tunnel surgery relieves pressure; it doesn’t repair a nerve. Symptoms return in a fixed order: pain first, tingling next, numbness slowly, strength last and least reliably. Plus how decompression and transposition differ.
A few centimeters of incision and a four to six month recovery. Tennis elbow surgery removes degenerate tendon; rebuilding good tendon is still done by loading it, which is why the rehab looks like the treatment you had before surgery.
In a child’s arm the growth plate is weaker than the ligament, so throwing damages it first. Inner elbow pain usually means rest. Outer elbow pain, catching or lost straightening means imaging, and it’s the one that causes permanent damage.
Inner elbow pain in a thrower is a ligament problem, not a tendon one. The first sign is usually lost velocity rather than pain, and Tommy John surgery does not make anyone throw harder.
A fall onto the point of the elbow. Whether you can straighten your arm against gravity decides whether this is a splint or an operation, and the metalwork sits under skin with nothing to pad it.
A pop at the front of the elbow under load, then an arm that still bends fine, so people wait. The hook test takes seconds, and the repair window closes at around two to three weeks.
The commonest adult elbow fracture, often hiding behind a normal-looking X-ray. What decides treatment is whether the fragment blocks rotation, and what decides your outcome is how early you start moving it.
Deep aching in the upper outer forearm that has been treated as tennis elbow for months without improving. The tenderness sits below the bony point rather than on it, and the trapped nerve causes pain without numbness.
Adult forearm fractures are plated because the forearm is a rotating joint, and a bone healing slightly the wrong shape costs you rotation permanently. Plus the two single-bone fractures that hide a dislocation at the other end.