Understanding Tennis Elbow: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment Options
Tennis elbow, a prevalent type of elbow injury, manifests as pain on the exterior of the elbow. Its primary cause is typically attributed to excessive strain or injury to the elbow.
What Triggers Tennis Elbow?
The elbow joint is crucial for the movement of the elbow, wrist, and fingers, with tendons connecting muscles to bones and facilitating joint movement. In cases of tennis elbow, inflammation and discomfort occur in one or more tendons around the elbow, resulting in pain on the outer side.
While tennis elbow commonly affects the dominant arm, it can also impact the non-dominant one or both arms. Although it’s named after its association with tennis players, anyone can develop this condition. It affects approximately 1–3% of the general population and about 50% of tennis players during their careers.
Apart from tennis, individuals engaged in activities involving repetitive arm movements—such as baseball, bowling, carpentry, gardening, landscaping, cleaning, and mechanical work—can also experience tennis elbow.
Symptoms
Pain is the predominant symptom of tennis elbow, localized around the outer elbow region. Activities such as lifting objects, bending the arm, performing fine hand and wrist movements (like writing or using tools), and twisting the forearm (e.g., turning a doorknob) can exacerbate the pain.
Many individuals may also notice a progressive increase in elbow weakness and arm stiffness as the tendon injury worsens. Simple tasks like opening a door or using tools might become challenging due to this weakness.
Treatment
Treatment options for tennis elbow include both non-surgical and surgical approaches.
Non-surgical treatments encompass rest, pain-relieving medications, corticosteroid injections, physiotherapy, and shock wave therapy.
In cases where non-surgical methods fail to alleviate pain, surgery becomes a viable option, particularly for individuals with severe or persistent tennis elbow. Surgical intervention aims to relieve pain by removing the damaged portion of the tendon.