What Causes Pain In The Elbow Despite Being Treated For Stress Fracture?

Posted on Wed, 22 Jun 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 22 Jun 2016 Answered on

Tue, 12 Jul 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : My son is 17 and developed a stress fracture in his elbow from throwing and pitching over the years. It showed up on an MRI. He took several months of baseball off to let it heal. The last MRI showed that the area had completely healed and he could return to throwing. He has been being careful and throwing twice a week at practice. We had his first tournament back and after the 3rd day he was in chronic pain in the same area. That was with just throwing and playing 3rd base, no pitching. Not sure what is going on. The MRI is so expensive so I need an opinion with what is going on.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Praveen Tayal (34 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Can be due to tendonitis.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query.
The pain in the elbow even after the stress fracture has healed can be due to a minor tendon or ligament related inflammation. Stress can aggravate the inflammation causing pain. It is best to use an elastic elbow support for a few days and avoid all the painful activities. Doing a hot compress and applying local analgesic gel will also help.
In case the pain persists then do get an oral muscle prescribed after consulting his physician.
I hope this answers your query.
In case you have additional questions or doubts, you can forward them to me, and I shall be glad to help you out.
Wishing you good health.
Regards.
Dr. Praveen Tayal.
For future query, you can directly approach me through my profile URL http://bit.ly/Dr-Praveen-Tayal

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D