Pain In The Back Of The Elbow (Posterior Impingement)

POSTERIOR ELBOW IMPINGEMENT

It occurs with rapid elbow extension banging the Olecranon into the Olecranon Fossa causing discomfort

Baseball Talk: During full Elbow Extension at ball release, the two bones in the back of the elbow bang into each other and piss off that area

It is common that this is felt more with supinated pitches like Sliders and Curveballs due to force being less dissipated through pronation/IR and more slamming into an extension stop point, but can progress to all pitches

Also why Ripping the hell out of a football can feel perfect (Tons of Pronation required)

THE FIX:

Less fun for us on this injury because it takes time. There is no quick fix

⚾️ Anti-Inflammatories will aid in speeding up the decrease in symptoms, but it takes time of avoiding rapid elbow extension or else you will continually “rip of the Scab” and it will linger

⚾️ Biceps eccentrics are a good way to help avoid a return of this issue. You need to be able to control that last bit of elbow extension

⚾️ Focus in the rest of the decel pattern to dissipate the force

⚾️ For PT’s, Humeral-Ulnar Distractions are effective with symptoms early on in the process

⚾️ Probably the most important aspects with this injury are Mechanical Adjustments that decrease the banging into elbow extension (not our area of expertise) and proper build up that systematically introduces and progresses Elbow extension Forces/speeds

🚨 **At the end of the day, if there is enough spurring in the back of the elbow that continues to be symptomatic after all the changes above, surgical intervention may be necessary to shave that down