Miracle healing of the elbow
Demigods in white, my arse. The work of us paediatricians is very unspectacular. We only briefly become heroes when it comes to "nanny's elbow".
Normally, our everyday treatment is as exciting as FC Bayern Munich's 156th German football championship: professional but predictable, boring but usually successful. However, there is one case in paediatrics where we briefly become heroes with a single "magic move": nanny's elbow.
The condition is relatively common and occurs in infants, usually between the ages of one and four. A sudden pull on the forearm (for example when playing "Engele, Engele flieg" or when the child defies and drops while being held by the hand) leads to a so-called subluxation, i.e. a partial dislocation of the forearm bone in the elbow joint.
The result: the arm hangs down more or less limply and the child can no longer move it and complains of pain. Normally, no further diagnostics are required, especially no X-rays, if the cause of the accident is clear. The child is placed on a parent's lap and the forearm is quickly put back in place. After a few minutes, the child can move the arm normally again and is pain-free.
And we doctors enjoy our heroic moment :-).
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