Elbow Pain or Inflammation?

Most of us have heard of tennis elbow or golfer's elbow, which are relatively common musculoskeletal problems. Unfortunately, it often occurs from other activities besides playing tennis or golfing too much.

If you're going to get injured, it would at least be nice if it happened while you're having fun!

These conditions are similar to the same type of problem: pain and inflammation of the elbow due to excess strain to the soft tissues, particularly the tendons. They are also forms of tendonitis, translated as 'inflammation of tendons'.

A tendon is a connective tissue that attaches muscle to bone. For example, if you hold your arm out and flex your wrist down, you would use the flexor muscles of the forearm. The tendons that attach those muscles to the bones around the elbow joint can become irritated and inflamed due to strain, hence tendonitis. The same applies to the extensor muscles of the forearm, i.e. those that extend your wrist back. So basically, the difference between golfer and tennis elbow is that golfer's elbow occurs on the inside of the elbow and tennis elbow on the outside of the elbow.

More commonly, these problems result from occupations requiring a lot of computer work or those with high repetition, such as factory workers.

So what can be done to help with tennis or golfer's elbow?

The first thing is to identify the cause and remove or at least reduce the stress on the tissue.

However, this may not be enough once the tissue is irritated or damaged, so other approaches might be necessary. Therapeutic ultrasound, electrical stimulation, cold LASER therapy, acupuncture, and massage can all be very helpful.

It may not be entirely possible to reduce the stress from specific jobs, so using an elbow brace to reduce the strain while working is often helpful.

If you're suffering from pain in your elbow, either work-related or fun-related. Please give us a call. We offer services that may help. 519-258-8544