Tennis elbow is a painful condition caused by an overuse of forearm muscles. As the popular name suggests, playing tennis is one of the most common cause of this condition. But it can be triggered by other strenuous activities, such as decorating or playing violin.
What are the symptoms of tennis elbow?
Pain is the most common symptom. It is localised on the outside of the elbow, around the bony “lump”. The lump is called epicondyle and the medical term “lateral epicondylitis” means inflammation of the outside epicondyle. By the way, inflammation of the medial (inside) epicondyle is commonly known as a golfer elbow. The epicondyle can be painful to touch and the pain is triggered by using the forearm muscles, i.e. lifting, picking up and so on.
What are the treatments?
The NHS website recommends non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers (NSAIDs) and steroid injections. None of those is recommended by us. Both NSAIDs and steroids can reduce inflammation but none of them will address the actual problem which is muscle tendon injury / damage. Our goal is to heal the injury. It is the only way to achieve long term effect and lasting improvement. In Algocells we use concentrated blood platelets (PRP) for damaged or injured tendons. PRP provide a vast amount of growth factors and anti-inflammatory molecules which help healing. A recently published systematic review (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pmrj.12287) showed a superior long term effect of PRP compared to steroid in the management of lateral epicondylitis.
If you suffer from pain caused by lateral (or medial) epicondylitis, suffer no more! Please, contact us, schedule an appointment (face to face or via video link) and have your tennis (golfer) elbow treated.