January 2006

I have been diagnosed with “tennis elbow.”  I was told that this is something that would get better with rest and the use of a brace, but it does not seem to be getting better. What can I do to get rid of this pain?

Tennis elbow involves an injury with resulting inflammation or swelling of the muscles and tendons (tendons connect muscle to bone) on the outside of the forearm and elbow.  This is a very common injury that affects tennis players, hence the name, but can also result from activities such as gardening, shoveling, painting and a number of job related tasks.  While in some cases, tennis elbow will resolve with enough rest and using other common and simple treatments such as ice, stretching of the forearm muscles and the use of a tennis elbow brace. Yet, many of these injuries do not heal for a number of reasons. These reasons include underlying conditions such as current or past neck pain, a stalled healing process, poor ergonomics at work or with household tasks, and wrist or elbow joint problems.  For example, even a minor change in the ability of the wrist to bend backwards will result in overworking of the forearm muscles. This can cause tennis elbow and keep the injury from healing.  If your condition does not seem to be healing, you may want to seek the advice of a physical therapist. The therapist can examine your injury and offer you advice on better treating the injury, use modalities such as ultrasound to speed up the healing process and look for underlying conditions that may be the cause of your injury.

Dennis McEntaffer, PT