What Is The Best Treatment For Tennis Elbow?

The sport of tennis is growing in popularity each day, with millions of people around the world enjoying the thrill of the game. A widely known injury associated with racquet sports is tennis elbow, also known as lateral epicondylitis. It’s a form of joint pain caused by high repetition use of the tendons which are attached to the muscles that control elbow movement. Between 1% to 3% of Americans will develop this condition, however, the recovery may take up to 18 months. Approximately 95% of people with this type of pain get better with nonsurgical treatments.

If you’re suffering from this problem and looking for treatment options, this blog will help you understand the condition better and the possible treatment options available. You can also find out about the symptoms of tennis elbow, its causes, and how it can be diagnosed. Read further to understand more about diagnosis, treatment options, and managing your recovery.

What is Tennis Elbow?

It is a painful inflammation of the outside of the elbow joint caused by repetitive stress (overuse). This condition is mostly seen in athletes who regularly play racquet sports or use forearm muscles for repetitive gripping. As this condition can affect most anyone, it is more common in people with arthritis or other risk factors for the condition.

The symptoms vary from person to person and may include pain, tenderness, swelling, and redness over the outside of the elbow. Many people experience pain when making lateral forearm movements, such as lifting a forearm toward the body or pointing it out to the side.

Lateral epicondylitis is often misdiagnosed because it is similar to other conditions, such as bursitis and tendinitis, which also cause pain and swelling of the outside of the arm. However, this condition causes inflammation of the tendons of forearm muscles that connect to the epicondylar region of the humerus bone. This part of the arm is responsible for raising and straightening your arm. Additionally, activities that involve repetitive gripping movements and especially those involving the thumb and first two fingers increase your chances of developing tennis elbow.

What are Tennis Elbow Symptoms?

• lateral epicondylitis presents with severe inflammation of the elbow joint caused by overuse.
• Symptoms include pain on the outside of the joint when extending your arm fully or bending your forearm fully.
• Pain is most severe when you straighten your arm fully or fully extend it from your shoulder. It may radiate down the back of your forearm as well.
• Pain with this condition can last for up to months and sometimes years.
• The best treatment in the beginning can be physical therapy, splinting your arm during activity, and platelet-rich plasma injections or PRP.
• Following the prescribed treatment plan can help relieve the pain and prevent recurring symptoms.

Diagnosing Tennis Elbow

• To diagnose this condition, your doctor will do a physical exam of the elbow and forearm, as well as range-of-motion and strength tests.
• Imaging tests, such as musculoskeletal ultrasound or X-ray, MRI, or electromyography tests may be used to identify any damage to this region.
• Our doctors will discuss your symptoms and treatment options with regenerative medicine such as PRP or stem cells. 

Treatment Options for Lateral Epicondylitis

There are various non-surgical treatments, including rest, physiotherapy, acupuncture/acupressure, anti-inflammatory medications, and a wrist and forearm splint or brace.

One of the most commonly performed treatments that has passed the gold standard test is platelet-rich plasma injections or bone marrow stem cells, which are one of the most frequently performed treatments. In this technique, the physician will withdraw blood from a vein in an arm and/or bone marrow from the hip and spin it down before injecting it into the painful tendons. Steroid injections were far less effective than PRP. Many patients may be suggested to follow up with a surgeon but this is generally seen with poor outcomes. 

When using regenerative medicine to regenerate the tendon tissue, it also helps to stop the inflammation that leads to it becoming chronic. Most outcomes are very favorable for PRP or bone marrow stem cells. Conversely, if you use steroids to reduce the inflammation you risk damaging the tissue further as steroids degrade the tissues and lead to tearing or chronic deterioration.

Here at Spectrum Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Center, we have helped many patients with tennis elbow get back to life and play the sports they love. 

Please call one of our care coordinators at 262-202-8312 now to assist in the process of answering questions and getting treatment. 

References:

Singh, Ajit; Gangwar, D. S.; Singh, Shekhar1. Injection of bone marrow concentrates for treatment of refractory tennis elbow. Saudi Journal of Sports Medicine 13(2):p 98-101, Jul–Dec 2013. | DOI: 10.4103/1319-6308.123392 

Murrell, W.D., Tulpule, S., Yurdi, N.A., Ezekwesili, A., Maffulli, N., Malanga, G.A. (2022). Orthobiologics for the Treatment of Tennis Elbow. In: Filardo, G., Mandelbaum, B.R., Muschler, G.F., Rodeo, S.A., Nakamura, N. (eds) Orthobiologics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84744-9_15

Berardo Di Matteo, Riccardo Ranieri, Angelo Manca, Simone Cappato, Maurilio Marcacci, Elizaveta Kon, Alessandro Castagna, "Cell-Based Therapies for the Treatment of Shoulder and Elbow Tendinopathies: A Scoping Review", Stem Cells International, vol. 2021, Article ID 5558040, 12 pages, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5558040