Imaging acute trauma of the elbow.

Elbow injuries, both acute and chronic, continue to rise as both the young and elderly increase their participation in athletic activities. The role of imaging is to provide supportive data as to the cause of the patient's symptoms and to guide treatment options for the referring physician. Understanding the anatomy and biomechanics of this sophisticated joint, various injury patterns, and the implication of injury to the static and dynamic stabilizers will result in improvement in diagnostic accuracy. Each of these topics are discussed to provide a foundation and overview of key concepts necessary to understand common elbow injuries.