Elbow injuries. Follow-up-treatment and conservative therapy

The main goals of rehabilitation following elbow injuries are freedom from pain, a stable joint, and free force deployment. Ultimately, the injured person should be able to go back to doing the same work as before, or at least be in a position to take up some position on the general labour market. This can only be achieved if the joint is subjected from the beginning to stresses of the same sort as are experienced at the workplace, which demands appropriate stability of bones and ligaments during exercise. To this end it is necessary to ascertain what stresses are to be expected and to draw up an activity profile specific to each person concerned. In the present paper the requirements and options for targeted integrative rehabilitation are discussed and illustrated with reference to an actual case.