Common Flexor Tendon

Chronic stress injury of the medial epicondyle can cause degeneration of the common flexor tendon and enlargement, sclerosis, fragmentation and phy-seal widening around the medial epicondyle. It is often found in children involved in throwing sports due to repeated valgus stress around the elbow. It is often called little leaguers elbow . 

MR imaging will show oedema within the common flexor tendon and muscle belly and around the apophysis. The physis is widened and irregular. The apophysis maybe avulsed and can be displaced inferiorly. 

The medial compartment includes the pronator teres and the superficial flexor muscles of the wrist and hand that arise from the medial epicondyle as the common flexor tendon . The pronator teres is the most superficial and anterior of the medial muscles. It has two proximal attachments one (humeral head) immediately proximal to the medial epicondyle and the common flexor tendon, the other (ulnar... 

The medial aspect of the elbow is examined with the elbow extended, resting on a table. Then, the patient is asked to lean toward the side with the forearm in forceful external rotation (Barr and Babcock 1991). On the medial side of the elbow, there are two main structures amenable to US evaluation the common flexor tendon and the medial collateral ligament. 

The common flexor tendon is best examined in longitudinal planes. It appears shorter than the... 

Fig. 8.62a-f. Dynamic study of the cubital tunnel in ulnar nerve dislocation. a-c Schematic drawings and d-f respective series of transverse 12-5 MHz US images obtained a,d with extended elbow and during progressive degrees of elbow flexion (b,e and c,f). When the elbow is extended, the ulnar nerve (arrow) is contained within the tunnel. Elbow flexion gradually pushes the nerve over the medial epicondyle (ME) until it snaps completely out of the cubital tunnel to lie superficial to the common flexor tendon origin (ft). 0, olecranon... 

CHAPTER 11 The diagnostics or signs In the second stage of this disease, they most commonly lose the use of their limbs having a contraction of the flexor tendons in the ham with a swelling and pain in the joint of the knee. Indeed a stiffness in these tendons, and a weakness of the knees, appear pretty early in this disease, generally terminating in a contracted and... 

In the United States alone, there are more than 300,000 tendon procedures every year (Webb et al., 2013). Commonly injured tendon tissues include the Achilles tendon, the flexor and extensor tendons in the hand, the rotator cuff tendons, and the patellar... 

Similar to the dorsal wrist, tendinopathies of the flexor tendons are commonly encountered, most often at the insertion of the flexor carpi radialis tendon and within the carpal tunnel for the flexor digitorum tendons (Fig. 10.33b) (Daenen et al. 2004). In addition to tendinopathies, compression neuropathy of the median nerve at the carpal tunnel is the leading pathology of the wrist as regards prevalence of disease and clinical relevance. The entrapment of the ulnar nerve at the Guyon tuimd is rare and, in many cases, secondary to other disorders. 

In hand wounds, foreign bodies are a common cause of infection of the flexor tendon sheath. In infectious tenosynovitis, detection of an echogenic effusion can allow an early diagnosis in the proper clinical setting (Schechter et al. 1989 Jeffrey et al. 1987) (Fig. 11.36). In these cases, however, the... 

The superficial layer of volar muscles consists of the flexor digitorum superficialis, the pronator teres, the palmaris longus, the flexor carpi radialis and the flexor carpi ulnaris (Fig. 9.2b,c). These muscles take their origin from a strong common tendon which arises from the medial epicondyle (see Chapter 8). The flexor digitorum superficialis, the largest muscle of the superficial layer, consists of three heads - humeral, ulnar and radial - which join at the proximal forearm and continue distally in four distal tendons that insert into the middle phalanx of the... 

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