Tennis Elbow Treatment

Do you have pain at the outside of your elbow?

Does it hurt more when you press on it or grip wide objects? Is it more painful in your warm-up and after exercise? Is it painful and weak with gripping activities?

It sounds like you have tennis elbow—or lateral epicondylitis. This occurs with repetitive activities and is when the tendons from the top of your forearm muscles become inflamed. Despite the name, people that spend most of the day on a computer are more likely to develop this condition.

While true tennis elbow is self-limiting and gets better with cutting back the offending activities, a lot of people develop chronic pain at this tendon insertion. The tendon becomes weakened and damaged and cannot heal properly.

Typical first line treatments include rest, ice, and bracing. Eccentric exercises may be implemented by a physical/occupational therapist. Other conservative treatments may include ultrasound, dry needling, and laser therapy.

If conservative measures fail, you are escalated to injections in order to reduce the inflammation rapidly. This will likely feel better in the immediate and may seem to “work,” but the damaged tendon is still damaged. It may even lead to tendon tears.

After many rounds of failed injections, surgeons will then debride the tendon and reattach any torn pieces. Injections and surgeries carry risks and complications. Infections, accidental cutting, subsequent adhesions/scar tissue are a few complications.

In some people even when the injections and surgery are a “success” they can still have pain and limited function.

So how do we do things better?

We use non-surgical, advanced Shockwave protocols that will not only reduce the inflammation in the tendon but stimulate it to heal properly.

Before you try risky injections and surgeries, try us!