A Brief Guide to Tennis Elbow and Its Treatment

What is tennis elbow?

Tennis elbow is a painful medical condition when the muscles joining your forearm muscles to your bones become weak. It occurs when you use your elbow a lot by repeating certain hand motions. You may also hear your doctor calling it Lateral Epicondylitis.

Apart from the name, tennis is responsible in only 5% of all cases. You can also get it after performing any monotonous hand movement, like painting or using any hand tools. Tennis elbow is a usual hand injury that generally requires only minor elbow pain home treatment, but it takes some time and constant rest to heal.

Where exactly does tennis elbow cause pain?

The pain is experienced outside your arm, where the forearm meets the elbow.

It’s linked to a muscle in your forearm. Muscles connect your ligaments to your bones. When you perform a constant arm movement, the muscles in the elbow- may get small tears.

This tearing causes stress on the rest of your arm, making it sore from lifting and holding things. Also, if you don’t get the right elbow joint pain relief treatment, the pain lasts a long time.

What are the symptoms of tennis elbow?

The common symptom of tennis elbow that people experience is an ache outside of their elbow. Over time — from a few days to a few weeks — the pain becomes a continuous ache. Finally, the outside of your elbow gets too painful even to touch. The pain raises from your forearm to wrist. Patients experience pain while doing absolutely nothing or anything, from opening a jar to holding a pen.

You may use a tennis elbow in one or both hands.

If you suffer from the symptoms after a week or close to a week and get worse, it’s time to call your doctor.

Also, consult your medic if you have any of these symptoms:

It’s tough to move your arm.

There’s a lump or swelling in it.

Pain or trouble moving your hand keeps you away from your everyday activities.

The area around the elbow is swollen or reddish.

Causes and risk of tennis elbow

According to a recent study, tennis elbow affects up to 3% of people, generally between the ages of 30 and 50.

Any activity that puts strain on the muscles around the elbow repeatedly causes tennis elbow. For example, hitting a backhand stroke stresses the forearm muscles, which clutch when you hit the ball in tennis. If the technique is off or the grip is too tight, it puts even more stress on the muscles attached to your elbow’s forearm muscles. That causes the tendons to get small tears.

You suffer from tennis elbow from playing other racquet sports, including racquetball or squash. You also get it from activities or jobs that include monotonous hand motion, such as:

Cutting trees with a chain saw

Painting

Carpentry

Playing musical instruments

Cutting with a knife

Plumbing

Working on cars

Working on an assembly line

A direct blow to your elbow makes the muscles swell.

How to diagnose Tennis Elbow?

Your doctor will start the diagnosis process by asking about the symptoms and medical history of the patient. Then, they’ll check for the pain in parts of your hand and ask to do some easy hand like stretching your wrist while they press on it.

Generally, this is not enough to tell if you are suffering from tennis elbow. Your doctor will recommend you to get different tests such as:

Electromyography. This helps your doctor check whether you are suffering from problems related to the nerves in your elbow and how fast and well they send signals. It also measures your tendons’ electrical activities, if they’re at rest, and when you contact them.

MRI. This help in finding arthritis in your neck or issues in your back, including a disk issue that causes pain in your elbow.

X-ray. This check for arthritis in your elbow.

Treatment for Tennis Elbow

Your doctor first recommends you completely stop playing the sport or doing some work so that your arms get the rest. Then, they’ll possibly recommend different medications, including naproxen, aspirin, ibuprofen, and perform some physical therapy which is considered the best elbow pain home treatment.

Your doctor will also give you:

Corticosteroid Medications. They inject these in the area to relieve pain and swelling.

A Splint or Brace. This is the most common remedy for tennis elbow where you have to wear this on your elbow that helps your muscles relax.

Ultrasound. This treatment helps break up the scar tissue, raise blood flow, and help with healing.

Up to 95% of people suffering from tennis elbow get relief from natural remedies for tennis elbow without surgery. But you may require it if you have pain after 6 to 12 months. The doctor removes your damaged tissue with the help of small cuts in your hand.

How to prevent Tennis Elbow?

Some small changes help lower the risk of tennis elbow.

Keeps your wrists and arms flexible and strong.  Help build strength with light weights. Don’t forget to warm up and stretch before performing any activity, mainly one that includes making the monotonous motions over and over.

Trying not to perform repetitive movements is the easiest remedy for tennis elbow.

If you want to play a sport that involves a racquet, have your equipment checked by experts to ensure it’s the right size and fit.