Tennis Elbow - Symptoms and Treatment Options

Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis is used to refer to pain that is caused over the bone on the outside part of the elbow. Now, the name tennis elbow might lead one to believe that only tennis players are prone to suffering from this condition. However, that's not true. Even other people are prone to suffer from this condition, especially those who engage in manual labor work. Work that requires repetitive extension of the wrists and gripping-type work.

Basically, the pain is brought on by overuse of the tendons attached to the lateral epicondyle (that is the bone that you can feel on the outside of your elbow). Overuse leads to damage to these tendons and hence the resultant pain. People who use hammers or other such implements repetitively are at an increased risk of suffering from tennis elbow than most people. Others sports that require repetitive motions - like rowing, pitching, etc can also bring about tennis elbows.

How To Identify If You Have Tennis Elbow:

There are some typical features that distinguish a tennis elbow. If you have increase in pain when holding doorknobs and twisting them, when you swing your club during a golf shot, if you can't quite extend your elbow fully, if you have tenderness and pain on the outside of the elbow, while hitting a backhand shot playing tennis, morning stiffness, etc, you might have to consider the possibility that you might have a tennis elbow.

Treatment Options For Tennis Elbow:

There are many treatment options that your doctor may suggest:

1. You may be advised rest - to refrain from sports and other activities that could put further stress on the elbow, until the pain goes away.

2. You may be prescribed one of the anti-inflammatory medications to help reduce the pain and inflammation. Medicines such as Aleve, ibuprofen, Advil, Naprosyn, etc.

3. Cortisone injections could be recommended by your doctor.

4. Physical therapy may be suggested along with some exercises, including elbow manipulation.

5. Vibration therapy may be recommended to help with the pain.

6. You may be advised to apply ice packs to the outside part of your elbow for 20 minutes or so.

You can decrease your chances of suffering from a tennis elbow by strengthening your arm muscles so that they can cope up with stress better - especially if you play sports like tennis and golf or do manual labor type of work, also things like painting, etc. It is also prudent to learn from the experts in the particular sport as to the correct techniques of playing the forehand or backhand shots, golf swings, etc.