The name Tennis Elbow does not accurately describe its occurrence as an exclusive condition affecting people in tennis sports.
People develop tennis elbow through continuous forearm muscle contractions needed for wrist and hand straightening movements along with raising motions. This condition affects anyone regardless of athletic participation.
What is Tennis Elbow?
Continued tendon use in your elbow creates a medical condition known as tennis elbow. Repetitive motions of the arm and wrist create muscle weakness that leads to tendon tears between muscles and bone structures at your elbows. The medical diagnosis of lateral epicondylitis carries the common name of tennis elbow.
The untrained individual needs to know that tendons function as elbow cushions and serve as muscle-bone connectors through their tough bandlike structure.
Tennis Elbow: Symptoms
The classic signs of a tennis elbow involve pain spread from outside your elbow toward your forearm and wrist. The elbow area experiencing tendon attachment near a bony bump becomes inflamed as a symptom of lateral epicondylitis for most patients. Natural progression of pain starts at this site and extends to your wrist and all the way to your finger tips.
Those suffering from tennis elbow may sometimes suffer pain when performing the following activities:
- Lifting something
- Making a fist
- Raising hand
- Straightening wrist
- Turning a doorknob
- Shaking hands
- Keeping a firm grip on an object
Tennis Elbow: People prone to getting lateral epicondylitis
Athletes and professionals, who make excessive use of specific arm and wrist motions are more vulnerable to getting a tennis elbow. These include:
- Tennis players
- Squash players
- Racquetball Players
- Baseball players
- Softball players
- Bowlers
- Gold players
- Fencers
- Painters
- Dentists
- Carpenters
- Plumbers
- Gardeners
- Butchers
- Chefs
- Auto mechanics
Tennis elbow symptoms
- Inflammation
- Pain in the outer elbow
- Swollen elbow joint
- Pain in twisting, bending & extending your arm
- Weakened grip
Common arm motions can cause tennis elbow
- Repetitive arm movements
- Use of the backhand stroke with poor technique in racquet games
- Using plumbing tools
- Painting
- Driving screws
- Cutting up cooking ingredients
- Excessive computer mouse use
Tennis elbow versus golfer’s elbow
Tennis elbow damages the tendons which reside on the exterior portion of your arm yet golfer’s elbow damages tendons found within the internal part of your elbow.
Tennis elbow treatment
Self-care steps
- Rest
- Use ice pack on the affected area
- Use an elbow strap to reduce further strain
- Compression
- Specific exercises
- Physiotherapy
- Use pain relievers
When to see a doctor?
Patients with tennis elbow need only normal conservative self-care techniques to cure their condition because this injury usually does not result in enduring effects. The situation should be treated using conservative methods for at least a year before medical professionals will diagnose a severe tennis elbow. Seeing a doctor becomes necessary after which the doctor might suggest surgery for treatment. Under surgical treatment doctors would remove the part of tendon which suffered damage before performing repairs on the remaining affected area. Such surgical procedures require 4 to 6 months for recovery.
FAQs
Medical research shows that Tennis Elbow develops because tendons in the arm experience excessive strain.
Tennis elbow treatment includes resting the affected arm along with both physiotherapy sessions and freedom to use over-the-counter drugs.
The quickest approach to heal tennis elbow begins with stopping the trigger activity followed by complete rest. You should apply an ice pack on the injured spot while creating a rehabilitation exercise plan to heal from athletic injury.
The proper self-care methods to treat tennis elbow involve physical therapy alongside rest and ice application.
The complete recovery period for tennis elbow patients under proper care extends to approximately 18 months.
If a person takes a break from the activity and rests while the activity causing tennis elbow then the injury has the potential to heal between 6 and 18 months.
