What is Tennis Elbow?

Pain from tennis elbow is due in inflammation of the tendon that attaches to the elbow and is part of the muscle that bends the wrist. Pain is caused by the inflammation of the tendons that join the forearm muscles on the outside of the elbow.

You don’t have to be a tennis player to suffer from this conditions.

Only 5% of tennis elbow conditions are a result of playing tennis.

Common Causes of Tennis Elbow

• Repetitive use of tendons and joints day after day, without enough time in between for repair, can lead to strains, tears, and inflammation because their tissues develop micro-tears over time.
• Other over use causes of elbow pain may originate in other areas of your arm, such as your wrists, from typing on a keyboard, playing an instrument, or knitting.
• A nerve impingement, or “pinched nerve,” in your neck that causes pain that is referred down the nerve and felt in your elbow.

Symptoms of Tennis Elbow

• Wrist weakness
• Tenderness or pain in the outside of the elbow
• Difficulty extending the forearm
• Pain with gripping, lifting and carrying
• Prolonged pain and discomfort may continue for as little as 3 weeks or as long as several years.

Treatment Options for Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow pain is one of those things that can make everything difficult. Not only does it keep you from sports and workouts, but makes working and daily life more challenging and aggravating. Yet unfortunately, too many people are living with chronic tennis elbow pain unnecessarily.

Common treatment for tennis elbow pain often starts with pain and anti-inflammatory medication. Sometimes physical therapy will also be recommended. The problem is that these treatments don't fix the underlying problem so the condition continues to worsen. Months or years later, surgery may be recommended. However, surgery is often found not fix the problem either.

Tennis elbow pain is frequently a condition that is not limited to your elbow joint itself. Surgery at the site of the elbow pain won't fix the overall mechanical problem. Think about the structure of an elbow and how it works. It takes your muscles and ligaments to make your elbow bend. These parts are all interconnected and work together. Every part that is involved needs to be considered a potential culprit to the cause of your elbow problems.

A pinched nerve in the neck. is one of those areas that don't get traditionally considered with typical medical treatment for tennis elbow. All nerves originate in your spine. The nerves running through your arm and elbow start in the neck portion of your spine (called the cervical spine). When the joints in your neck are out of their proper position, they can easily put pressure on the nerves that exit the joint. When this happens, the entire length of the nerve can become irritated and inflamed, causing pain at any point along the length of the nerve. Doctors of Chiropractic are specifically trained to identify pinched nerves and gently realign the joint to relieve the nerve and allow it to heal.

We evaluate and treat tennis elbow all the time in our office. In fact, many of our patients are athletes who are susceptible to elbow disorders, like golfers, tennis players, football players, and hockey players. We also treat a lot of patients with tennis elbow pain caused by work, especially jobs that require a lot of computer keyboard use, or from hobbies that require repetitive motions. And then there are the patients we treat that experience tennis elbow pain that is not an elbow problem at all, they actually have a neck problem. Once we treat their neck, their elbow problem resolves.

Do I Need Surgery for Tennis Elbow?

Surgery for tennis elbow is usually NOT necessary because the tendon should be able to heal with non-surgical chiropractic treatment.

Some doctors recommend surgery that involves cutting the tendon and removing the inflamed tissue. Recovery can take up to 6 months and is too often not successful. There have been no studies that show surgery is better that natural non-invasive treatment, such as cold laser therapy, physical therapy, and rest. Why take the invasive, risky, painful route of surgery when you can solve the problem more quickly and without any painful treatment, no time off work, and more inexpensively?

Tennis Elbow Prevention

Treating your symptoms will give you relief and solve the immediate problem, but prevention for future irritation needs to be addressed as well. Proper ergonomics, stretching exercise, and techniques for increasing circulation are important. Taking frequent breaks, and finding equipment that is more ergonomic are very helpful for prevention. For example, a hammer or tennis racquet with a softer grip will absorb some of the impact on your wrist.