What Is Tennis Elbow?

It is called lateral epicondylitis in medical language. It is a painful disease caused by excessive use of the elbow. A tennis elbow is a condition in which tendons that connect the muscles of the forearm on the outside of the elbow become inflamed or sometimes torn.
Forearm muscles and tendons are damaged by overuse. If the same movements are repeated for a long time and continuously, pain and tenderness appear on the outside of the elbow.
For this reason, this disease is likely to occur in connection with movement in many sports, such as tennis. While diagnosing the disease, the patient's history is primarily listened to by the doctor. A physical examination is then performed. Definitive diagnosis is made with examinations such as MRI and X-ray.

What Are The Symptoms of Tennis Elbow?

Pain in the outer part of the elbow (lateral epicondyle) manifests itself as tenderness, stiffness, burning sensation, prominence in the elbow, swelling in the elbow, weakness in the forearm, difficulty in raising the arm, difficulties in holding small objects, difficulties and pains while opening jars or opening lids.

What Are The Risk Factors For Tennis Elbow?

The tendon is a hard tissue that connects muscles to bones. The tendon in the tennis elbow is called the extensor carpi radialis brevis. It is usually seen between the ages of 30-50.
Occupation emerges as a separate risk factor. It is a risk factor in occupational groups that include repetitive movements of the wrist and arm. In some sports, such as cooks, butchers, tennis elbow may develop due to synchronized and long-term repetition using the wrist and arm.

What Are The Tennis Elbow Treatment Methods?

Tennis elbow can heal on its own in some cases. At the same time, some treatment methods are effective for reducing and improving symptoms and pain.
It is possible to reduce the inflammation by resting the arm that is painful or tennis elbow, applying a cold compress, painkillers such as Paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Steroid injections and applications known as tennis elbow band are also supportive.

Apart from drug therapy and some precautions, physical therapy is recommended to reduce the symptoms of the disease. Physical therapy methods such as massage, tens, electrotherapy, hot-cold application and exercises are performed. Surgical removal of the damaged part of the tendon is used as a last resort according to the severity of the disease.

The ESWT method is applied as the gold standard in electrotherapy in tennis elbow and gives successful results.