Understanding Your Treatment Options for Tennis Elbow

Having pain from the tendons in your elbow? Read on to find out what’s causing that pain — and how you can treat it!

The first lawn tennis tournament was held in England a few years ago — in 1882, to be precise. That same year, Henry Morris came up with a name for the condition that caused pain to occur in the muscles and tendons of the elbow: “lawn tennis arm.”

From these beginnings came the name just about everyone has heard: tennis elbow.

At Carolina Joint and Arthritis in Wilmington, North Carolina, one of our specialities is treating tendon injuries such as tennis elbow. Here’s how Dr. Austin Yeargan and our team can help if you’re fighting the condition.

What is tennis elbow?

The official name for tennis elbow is lateral epicondylitis. It’s a type of tendonitis that results from overuse of the muscles and tendons in the arm due to repeated motions of the wrist and arm.

The truth is, most people who suffer from tennis elbow don’t play tennis. We see the condition more in people who have jobs that require repeated arm movements, such as carpenters, butchers, and painters.

The pain usually occurs when the tendons in your forearm attach to the bony bump on the outside of your elbow; the pain can also spread into your forearm and wrist, making it difficult to do things like shake hands, open doorknobs, or hold a cup.

What are tennis elbow treatment options?

If tennis elbow is affecting your everyday life, you have several treatment options that can help you get back to normal:

Physical therapy

Treatment usually begins with conservative options such as activity modifications and physical therapy to strengthen the muscles and tendons in the forearm. A strap or brace on the forearm may also help.

Injections

Various types of shots injected into the affected tendon may help. These can include corticosteroids and anti-inflammatory medication. Dry needling may also help.

If these treatments don’t relieve your pain, Dr. Yeargan’s expertise in regenerative therapies that can heal the damaged tendon will come in helpful.

Orthobiologics

Dr. Yeargan is a pioneer in these treatments, which use the body’s own healing abilities to speed up recovery from injuries. Platelet-rich plasma injections can be effective to treat tennis elbow. The extra platelets injected into the site of your injury activate your body’s healing processes to support the regeneration and repair of the damaged tendons.

Dr. Yeargan also adds concentrated TSG-6 proteins to the PRP to fight inflammation and achieve better results.

Tenex

The Tenex procedure uses ultrasound energy to remove the inflamed and damaged tissue from your tendons. Dr. Yeargan guides a small needle into the affected tendon. Ultrasonic energy then vibrates the needle so fast that it turns the damaged tissue to liquid, which can then be sucked out. With the affected tissue gone, your arm should return to normal soon.

If you’re suffering from symptoms of tennis elbow, our team at Carolina Joint and Arthritis wants to help. To make an appointment, just call our office at 910-659-9597 or use our convenient online scheduler today!