Elbows

Tennis elbow is a common injury. It tends to be precipitated by a period of repetitive use, for example in tennis this could be an unusually long session, or a lesson concentrating on a particular stroke. It can also be caused by a change in pattern of use, for instance a different racquet (wider grip. different weight, head size) or a completely revised stroke.

Lots of people get tennis elbow without ever having played tennis! It has become a common term for elbow pains associated with difficulty in gripping.

Pain can arise from irritation of a number of structures around the elbow joint : inflammation can occur around the tendon(s) at the point of attachment to the bone, or at the junction between tendon and muscle fibre; the mobility of the elbow joint can deteriorate, particularly the articulation between the head of the radius and the humerus. There can be restriction of the passage of nerve fibres, particularly the radial nerve, through the soft tissues around the elbow.

Research has shown that in the majority of cases there will be some degree of dysfunction in the neck, contributing to elbow pain, particularly if the condition has been persistent.

All of these structures need to be accurately examined and treated to resolve tennis elbow. If you have had tennis elbow for any length of time you will probably hear about all sorts of different treatment approaches which may or may not have worked; this is because it is a condition which can have a number of differing underlying causes.