Medical Questions » Arms Questions » Question No. 1081
| Question: | Recently I heard of a term -Excessive carrying angle of the elbow. Honestly, I never heard about this deformity before. Can you explain this? |
| Answer: | Normally our forearms and hands stay slightly away from the body with the arms extended at the sides and the palms facing forward. This is termed as the normal "carrying angle" of the elbow, which is usually 5 to 15 degrees. This angle allows the forearms to clear the hips in swinging movements during walking. This angle is also important and helpful when we carry objects.
Sometimes, after certain fractures of the elbow, the carrying angle of the healed arm increases, this in turn results in the arms to stick out too much from the body. This is referred to as an excessive carrying angle. There is another deformity called "gunstock deformity" where the carrying angle decreases resulting in the arm pointing towards the body.
Everyone' s carrying angle is different from each other. So, when the problem or deformity is evaluated related with carrying angle, it is important to compare one elbow with the other. |
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