[Follow-up treatment concepts for elbow injuries]

So far there are no clear recommendations for postoperative follow-up treatment of elbow injuries and individual concepts are often chosen. Due to the susceptibility for posttraumatic or postoperative impaired movement up to stiffness of the elbow joint, early mobilization plays a crucial role. Therefore, mid-term to long-term immobilization should be avoided. In addition to the necessary cryotherapy and compression therapy for swelling and pain control in the initial period, early actively assisted mobilization now has an important role. Additionally, active flexion and extension in an overhead position, so-called overhead motion, was recently established. After a short initial immobilization in a cast, mostly 3-5 days, the cast is changed to a dynamic movement orthosis, which when possible enables a free range of motion. Care is taken that varus and valgus loading is avoided. In general loading is avoided for the first 6 weeks, followed by a stepwise increase of loading up to maximum loading. In most cases return to sport is possible after 3 months. After implantation of an elbow prosthesis a maximum loading of 5 kg for single loading and 1 kg for repetitive loading are recommended.