MRI Mastery Series: Elbow

Elbow MRI — Course Overview

One of the busiest joints in your body, just three bones come together to activate the hinge joint that is your elbow. It is often the rotational elements of the arm which can make elbow evaluation more complex – the stabilizing ligaments and tendons and the interwoven muscles involve much more than just the biceps/triceps combo.

In order to get to the bottom of your patient’s complaint, often you’ll need to consider the tunnels of the upper and lower arm with all their inhabitants, including the nerves and vasculature. Anatomic misdirection beyond the joint “fortress” is entirely possible once you venture outside the bony architecture. There are theoretically a finite number of pathologies discoverable within this joint – but most elbow scans are performed on children and athletes. Depending upon your practice, you actually might not see much elbow MR.

Our Elbow MRI Mastery Series is your opportunity to be prepared for almost anything. Dislocations or epicondylitis might be fairly straightforward, but the range of activities that can give rise to elbow injury is broad. Gymnastics as well as other team sports come to mind, but we’ve seen many injuries from falls on outstretched arms (skateboarding, rollerblading, cycling). Overuse syndromes from tennis, repetitive work tasks and other rotating-arm activities can leave you wondering which inflammation is acute, and which is chronic.

You’ll likely find a similar case in the Mastery series or the associated Advanced Orthopedic and Joint MRI series, Case Reviews, and Professional series. Our thorough and detailed anatomy module is just the ticket to make your referring clinician think you’ve seen a thousand elbows (or more, like we have). This is a joint where it is relatively easy to appear knowledgeable, WITH the appropriate groundwork and preparation. Let us be your guide to the “funny” bone!

Elbow MRI Anatomy & Diganosis Covered in this Course

• Anconeus muscle
• Anterior bundle of the medial collateral ligament (AMCL)
• Avulsion fractures
• Biceps muscle
• Brachialis muscle
• Collateral ligaments
• Dislocation (Anterior)
• Dislocation (Posterior)
• Epicondylitis
• Extension deficit
• Fall on outstretched hand (FOOSH)
• Ligament ruptures
• MCL rupture
• Median nerves
• Pulling and twisting injuries
• Radial anatomy
• Radial nerves
• Tennis elbow
• Triceps muscle
• Ulnar anatomy
• Valgus injury
• And much more…