Treatment options depend on the stage of the disease, prior history, what the patient desires, overall medical condition, and the results of x-rays and other tests.
Nonsurgical Treatment
For the early stages of osteoarthritis of the elbow, the most common treatment is nonsurgical. This includes oral medications to reduce or alleviate pain, physical therapy, and activity modification.
Corticosteroid injections are sometimes used to treat osteoarthritis symptoms. Steroid medication works in most patients, but not everyone. Although the effects of injections are temporary, they can provide some pain relief until symptoms progress enough to need additional treatment.
An alternative to steroids has been the injection of hyaluronic acid in various forms, called viscosupplementation. Viscosupplementation involves injecting substances into the joint to improve the quality of the joint fluid. Viscosupplementation, however, has a limited role in the elbow joint and still requires further medial studies to find out if it is truly beneficial.
Surgical Treatment
When nonsurgical interventions are not enough to control symptoms, surgery may be needed. By the time arthritis can be seen on x-rays, there has been significant wear or damage to the joint surfaces. Even if the wear and bone spurs are severe, arthroscopy can offer a minimally invasive surgical treatment.
Arthroscopy has been shown to provide symptom improvement and improved range of motion. It involves removing any loose bone/cartilage fragments or inflammatory/degenerative tissue in the joint. It also attempts to smooth out irregular surfaces and remove bone spurs. Multiple small incisions are used to perform the surgery. It can be done as an outpatient procedure, and recovery is reasonably rapid.
If the joint surface has worn away completely, it is unlikely that anything other than a joint replacement would bring about relief. There are several different types of elbow joint replacement available.
In appropriately selected patients, the improvement in pain and function after a joint replacement can be dramatic.
For patients who are too young or too active to have a joint replacement, there are other reasonably good surgical options. If loss of motion is the primary symptom, the surgeon can release the stiffness and smooth out the joint surface. At times, a new surface made from the patient’s own body tissues can be made. These procedures can provide some improvements in symptoms and function.