Shockwave therapy has a success rate of 77% for tennis elbow pain.
What Is Tennis Elbow?
Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is an overuse and muscle strain injury. The cause is repeated contraction of the forearm muscles that you use to straighten and raise your hand and wrist. The repeated motions and stress to the tissue may result in a series of tiny tears in the tendons that attach the forearm muscles to the bony prominence at the outside of your elbow.
How Can Tennis Elbow be Treated?
Conventional treatments include relative rest, applying ice, pain relieving and anti-inflammatory medication, support devices, physiotherapy and physical exercises. However, these treatments may take time to produce desired outcomes of pain-free movement within the hand, wrist and elbow. Typically, if symptoms do not respond to conventional treatment, you can receive a corticosteroid injection which can help to reduce pain, this treatment reduces inflammation around the elbow allowing freedom of movement without significant pain. However, this treatment is usually a short-term fix as it reduces the immune response within the area meaning the tendon may not heal even though the pain has reduced. Â
Shockwave Shows The Best Results For Treatment of Tennis Elbow
As reported in a 2015 study published in the journal of physiotherapy sciences, shockwave therapy is considered to be more beneficial compared to corticosteroid injections when treating tennis elbow especially for long term outcomes. As radial shockwave is a pro-inflammatory device it generates blood flow towards the effected area which helps to initiate the healing process within the torn fibres. The acoustic waves also decrease pain signals helping to reduce symptoms of pain and discomfort when moving the arm and wrist. Research suggests that pain can be alleviated within a maximum of five sessions of shockwave therapy with a success rate of 77% in the general population. The pros of using shockwave therapy for tennis elbow is that we can also provide hands on treatment and tailored exercise to strengthen the area as the pain eases which helps to reduce the likelihood of injury reoccurrence.
If you are struggling to lift your laptop out of your laptop bag, lift a kettle/pan or play tennis then shockwave is the best treatment option.
To book your shockwave appointments with Physio-logical, based in Rowlands Castle, Hampshire then please book online, call 02394 350270 or email us at enquiries@physio-logical.net. Research suggests 5-6 sessions are optimum at intervals of 5-10 days between appointments.
