title: Elbow rehabilitation in traumatic pathology.
abstract: The elbow, intermediate joint of the upper limb, frequently undergoes to pathological events and is especially prone to stiffness. Rehabilitation plays an important role in recovering functional activities. For the rehabilitation team, this goal always represents a challenge, as the treatment has to be continuously modeled and calibrated on the needs of the individual patient, even many times during the same rehabilitation cycle. Containing the effects of immobilization, avoiding to excessively stress the healing tissues, satisfying specific clinical criteria before moving to the next rehabilitation stage, basing the rehabilitation plan on up-to-date clinical and scientific data that can be adapted to each patient and to his/her needs are the basic principles of the rehabilitation plan, which can be chronologically grouped into four rehabilitation stages. After summarizing the general principles of elbow treatment, the specific principles of rehabilitation after elbow fractures and elbow instability are presented, and then the rehabilitative approach to the most frequent and feared pathological conditions of the elbow, namely stiffness, is described.
authors.affiliation: Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Unit, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Via Pupilli 1, Bologna, Italy. ifusaro@ior.it.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fusaro
authors.affiliation: Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Unit, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Via Pupilli 1, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Orsini
authors.affiliation: Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Unit, Terme di S.Petronio-Antalgik, Bologna, Italy.|PhysioMedica Faenza Italy, Faenza, Italy.|Shouldertech Forlì Italy, Forlì, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stignani Kantar
authors.affiliation: Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Unit, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Via Pupilli 1, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sforza
authors.affiliation: Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Unit, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Via Pupilli 1, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Benedetti
authors.affiliation: Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Unit, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Via Pupilli 1, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bettelli
authors.affiliation: Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Unit, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Via Pupilli 1, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rotini
mesh_terms: D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D004204:Joint Dislocations / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D007593:Joint Instability / Q000534:rehabilitation; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D000092464:Elbow Injuries
keywords: Elbow rehabilitation; Elbow trauma; Physical therapy