Tennis elbow is a common ailment that affects many of us. Unlike what its name implies, Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis sufferers rarely can attribute their pain from playing tennis.
What is tennis elbow?
Tennis elbow is a fairly painful condition involving the tendons which attach to the outside of the elbow. Those tendons may become inflamed or can develop degenerative tears where the tendon attaches to the bone making gripping, lifting and grasping painful.
Causes of tennis elbow?
There are several causes for this condition. Most commonly these include:
- Overuse. Overuse of the forearm muscles involving repetitive movements of the wrist such as typing or using hand tools repeatedly(gardening shears, screwdrivers are an example) can predispose one to tennis elbow.
- Trauma. Trauma to the elbow can cause inflammation and small tears to the tendon that can cause you to develop tennis elbow
- Neck issues. When there is no apparent cause for your tennis elbow, more often than not, the neck may be the culprit. An irritation of the nerve in the neck may predisposed you to injury anywhere along the chain where the nerve passes. In the case of a tennis elbow, irritation of the nerve in the neck will predispose the tendon in the elbow it supplies to become inflamed and irritated if its nerve supply is affected.
Treatment options:
- Assess and treat the aggravating factor in your neck to help decrease the nerve irritation impact that is contributing to your elbow pain
- Acupuncture, ultrasound to help with the inflammation in the tendon
- Stretching and soft tissue massage to help the forearm muscles heal
- Specific strengthening exercises, increasing the resistance gradually as to not aggravate the inflamed tendon
- Brace. Using a brace over the back of your forearm may help relieve symptoms and help the tendon heal by resting the muscles and tendons
Physiotherapy treatments can help with tennis elbow pain. By looking at the causal factors of your tennis elbow, be it an overuse injury, trauma, or a neck component contributing to your elbow
pain, our physiotherapists at the Durham Orthopedic and Sports injury Clinic will get to the root cause and set up a treatment program geared specifically to your cause.
