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What Causes Swelling In The Elbows?

Posted on Tue, 31 Oct 2017

Question: I have swelling and tenderness on the inner sides of the elbows and the area on the inner sides of the knees. The swelling is not on the joints but beside the joints on the inner part of elbows and knees. There have been no injuries to explain it. The doctor said it might be inflammation of the tendons or ligaments. He prescribed Voltaren cream. No X-rays were performed. The cream is only mildly effective. The swelling and tenderness is always present. This has been ongoing for over a year. What causes this type of inflammation? Is there a better treatment than the Voltaren cream?

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Could be tennis elbow

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

I have gone carefully through your query and understand your concerns. you are describing could be consistent with tennis elbow. The cause of the associated inflammation could be a pull on the muscle/tendon. I would insist you to take a picture of the affected area with a finger pointing specifically to the area. Hot compress and compressive bandaging should provide relief. Also google out for (or check youtube) for exercises for tennis elbow. Practice them and I hope it would help.

X rays cannot distinguish soft tissue lesions and therefore would not be helpful. The skin absorption of pain ointments is only minimal and therefore there should not be good improvement.

Let me know if I could help further.

Regards

Note: For further queries, consult a joint and bone specialist, an Orthopaedic surgeon. Book a Call now.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Nagamani Ng