Tennis elbow
Lateral epicondylitis (also called tennis elbow) is a painful inflammation of the tendon rudiments of muscles in the situated in the underarm. These tendon rudiments are originating from the distal part of the humerus on both sides of the epicondyles:
It is differentiated between two forms of inflammations:
Epiconylits radialis humeri (also called tennis elbow, lateral epicondylitis): Inflammation of the tendon rudiments on the external epicondylus of the humerus (extensor tendon of the wrist and the fingers).
Epicondylitis ulnaris humeri (also called Golfer’s elbow, medial epicondylitis): Inflammation of the tendon rudiments on the internal epicondylus of the humerus (flexor tendon of the wrist and the fingers).
weiter zur Entstehung...An epicondylitis is caused by overstraining the underarm musculature which means extreme or ongoing repeated movements of the arm. The resulting bone tissue accretion for angle-optimizing the muscle attachment is supposedly distending the sensory nerve-supplied periosteum. Some of the triggers may be:
- One-sided overstraining (eg. using a key pad or computer mouse, sports climbing
- Wrong bearing (eg. in the job, during the work in the garden or while doing housework or in the leisure time
- Wrong technique when doing racket sports (eg. playing tennis, badminton, golf)
- Wrong posture during sleeping in the lateral position: Use of a strong-bowed arm as a head restraint
The generally accepted opinion is that a wrong grip magnitude which means either a grip magnitude that is too large or too small is causing an epicondylitis. Due to the outcomes of an actual survey of 2006 this is not the case. In the view of the researchers a wrong grip magnitude has no significant effect on the respective muscles of the underarm and therefore plays no significant role in developing an inflammation of a tendon.
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Pressure pain exists on the respective muscles as well as effluent, drawing pain in the whole underarm. First the underarms only hurt when they are strained. In a further stadium they also cause pain without straining them and the power is decreasing more and more.
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The therapy is made by means of cooling, ultrasonics, laser therapy, interference therapy, supervoltage irradiation , electrostimulation therapy, muscle-straining exercises, bandages, medical dressings, shock-wave therapy (ESWT and lithotripsy), the use of creams (voltaren, diclac, dolobene) and gels, manual therapy, physiotherapy, acupuncture, neural therapy or hormone therapy, local friction massage or cortisone therapy.
There are indications of epicondylitis being treated with physiotherapy is more effective than a cortisone therapy or just waiting for the epicondylitis to get better itself. Very important is the avoidance of any strain or loading. It is important to know that epicondylitis is in most of the cases a self-limiting disease. Approximately 90% to 95% of all patients are becoming pain-free by means of therapy.
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