Tennis elbow can be caused by trauma to the elbow or more often by repeated stress on the elbow tendons such as from sports or use of certain tools. Symptoms of tennis elbow can include pain or weakness when grasping and aches or pain in the elbow area.
Treatment of tennis elbow includes: activity modification, ice, medicine, stretching, braces and injections. Surgery is rarely used to treat tennis elbow. Lateral epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, is swelling of the tendons that bend your wrist backward away from your palm.
A tendon is a tough cord of tissue that connects muscles to bones. The tendon most likely involved in tennis elbow is called the extensor carpi radialis brevis. Tennis elbow is usually diagnosed in both men and women between the ages of 30 and 50 years. Tennis elbow, as the name implies, is often caused by the force of the tennis racket hitting balls in the backhand position. Your forearm muscles, which attach to the outside of your elbow, may become sore from excessive strain.
When making a backhand stroke in tennis, the tendons that roll over the end of our elbow can become damaged. Tennis elbow may be caused by:. However, many people who suffer from tennis elbow do not play tennis.
The problem can be caused by any repetitive movement. Other causes of tennis elbow include:. Using repeated hand motions in various professions, such as meat cutters, musicians, dentists, and carpenters. The following are the most common symptoms of tennis elbow. However, you may experience symptoms differently. Taking painkillers, such as paracetamol , and NSAIDs , such as ibuprofen , may help ease mild pain and inflammation caused by tennis elbow. Topical NSAIDs are often recommended for musculoskeletal conditions, such as tennis elbow, rather than anti-inflammatory tablets.
This is because they can reduce inflammation and pain without causing side effects, such as feeling sick nausea and diarrhoea.
Read more about non-prescription and prescription-only medicines. The GP may refer you to a physiotherapist if your tennis elbow is causing more severe or persistent pain. Physiotherapists are healthcare professionals who use a variety of methods to restore movement to injured areas of the body.
The physiotherapist may use manual therapy techniques, such as massage and manipulation, to relieve pain and stiffness, and encourage blood flow to your arm. They can also show you exercises you can do to keep your arm mobile and strengthen your forearm muscles. The use of a brace, strapping, support bandage or splint called an orthosis may also be recommended in the short term.
Steroids , medicines that contains synthetic versions of the hormone cortisol, are sometimes used to treat tennis elbow. Some people with tennis elbow are offered steroid injections when other treatments have not worked.
The injection will be given directly into the painful area around the elbow. A local anaesthetic may be given first to numb the area and reduce the pain.
Steroid injections are only likely to give short-term relief and their long-term effectiveness is poor. The vast majority of suffers are not tennis players, however. Other hobbies that are known to cause tendonitis elbow include:. Many elbow tendonitis sufferers acquire the condition as the result of their work.
Professions at high risk include:. Anyone who engages in repetitive hand, wrist, or arm movement at work or during pleasure activities may be at risk. Tennis elbow can happen at any age. It is most common between adults 30 to 50 years old, however.
Occasionally, adults can come down with tennis elbow without engaging in any observable repetitive motion activities. The weakness that results from tennis elbow can make it difficult for suffers to grasp or lift objects.
This can seriously complicate the activities of daily living. Individuals can struggle to:. The personal challenges to personal care and mobility limit their ability to get to work in the first place.
Once they are at work, they are often unable to use the tools required to do their jobs. Extreme, constant pain can make thinking, focusing, and completing tasks difficult. Jobs that require the use of the injured arm can be impossible. Ultimately, if tennis elbow is left untreated or if it does not respond to treatment, it can drive people out of the workplace entirely.
In extreme cases, it can lead to disability and a permanent loss of wages. Nationally, the condition accounts for significant loss of productivity in the workplace and substantial health care expenses. It is a burden that both workers and employers share. Tennis elbow pain is very specific.
It is focused on the outside of your elbow, near the bottom of the joint. In some cases, the pain extends down to include your forearm and your wrist. The pain can come on without warning and may be extreme. It may get worse when you attempt to grip or squeeze something with your hand. The pain may also flare up particularly badly when you use your hand or arm in the repetitive motion that caused the injury.
The weakness associated with tennis elbow affects elbows, wrists, and hands. You may find that you have trouble holding onto glasses or mugs, manipulating doorknobs, or picking up objects like pencils or keys. Lateral epicondylitis may set in all at once with no clear inciting incident.
Alternatively, it can start out as mild or occasional pain but gradually get worse over a long period of time. It is possible to have tennis elbow just one arm or in both arms at the same time. About two-thirds of sufferers get it in their dominant arms. Women are slightly more likely to suffer from tennis elbow than men. Tennis elbow symptoms are not externally visible. Sufferers do not experience bruising, redness, visible swelling, rashes, or other outward signs of their injuries.
If you suspect that you have lateral epicondylitis, you should consult with your doctor. It is impossible to accurately diagnose tennis elbow yourself, as there are other numerous other conditions with similar symptoms that it might be confused for.
There is no direct test that your doctor can use to determine if you are suffering from tennis elbow. Instead, he or she will use a combination of assessments to verify that you are suffering from the condition. First, your doctor will review your symptoms and your personal medical history.
They will ask your work and home activities, looking for actions or situations that might cause a repetitive strain injury. It is important to tell your doctor about all of your activities and injuries during this stage so that they can make an accurate diagnosis. Your doctor may then palpate or carefully move your arm. They will ask you about your pain levels as it moves, and look for patterns and correlations.
In some cases, your doctor may use medical imaging techniques to further explore your condition and rule out other possible causes. For example, they may take X-rays to look for arthritis or an EMG to check for nerve damage. They may use an MRI to make sure the pain is not related to a herniated disk which can cause similar symptoms.
Together, these approaches will allow your doctor to determine if you have tennis elbow and, if so, how severe it is. In its mildest forms, lateral epicondylitis is often treatable to simple therapies and over-the-counter medications.
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