What is “Tennis Elbow”?
It's Summer time! Hopefully, meaning more sunshine, possible heatwaves and an entertaining summer of tennis ahead culminating with the Australian Open.
It brings to mind a common condition we see at the clinic with the layman's term of 'Tennis Elbow.' Despite its name, you definitely don't need to be a regular/avid tennis player to suffer from it. The fancy medical terminology for this condition is wrist extensor tendinopathy. This is where the tendon for the muscles involved in extending your wrist and gripping is repetitively or suddenly overloaded where you can suffer micro-damage or in some instances tearing of the tendon. In tennis, the sustained grip force required of your extensor muscles and frequent 'wristy' motions to generate spin and come over the ball can result in 'tennis elbow.'
The pain is normally felt right on the outside point of the elbow (lateral epicondyle of the humerus bone) where the tendon attaches and in acute cases can ache constantly. As it subsides, you'll get intermittent periods of pain frequently with lifting, bending or reaching both during and commonly after you perform an activity. In many cases, you may also feel that your forearm muscles are tight and you lack grip strength.
The symptoms can be range from being annoying to be quite debilitating pending what activities you require of your elbow, forearm and wrist. Pending the severity, cases can go for 2 weeks to even months or a year.
The diagnosis of wrist extensor tendinopathy is quite easy to make but the management and treatment can certainly be very tricky. Many times, you don't require investigatory scans. Scans can also be misleading as modern day scans are very sensitive and can pick up on changes within the tendon in asymptomatic individuals. We're learning more and more that the state of tissue damage does not necessarily correlate well with severity of symptoms felt.
What can do done about it?
There are various treatment approaches used to manage wrist extensor tendinopathy. Some of the passive modalities (things you don't have to proactively do) include:
- Massage
- Dry Needling
- Shockwave Treatment
- Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)/Cortisone Injections
- Oral anti-inflammatories
- Tennis elbow brace/sleeve
Many of these modalities are there to address symptoms but doesn't address the causes such as:
- Doing too much/poor pacing with activities
- Weak forearm/shoulder complex muscles
- Poor lifting technique
- Inadequate workstation setup for desk/computer work
The most effective approach is to combine passive treatments for pain relief as well as guided active treatments to address some of the contributing factors above.
A physiotherapist is well trained to identity what stage of the condition you're in, what contributed to your injury and the most appropriate exercises and activities to do and avoid so that you can return to doing the things you need and love to do.
If you or someone you know is currently suffering from this condition contact us on 9754 8772.
We provide a 'Free Initial Assessment' where you can have your condition assessed by a physiotherapist who will advised you what is the most appropriate treatment(s) for you.