Tennis elbow

Tennis elbow and consequential elbow pain generally develops due to overexertion, and it is also frequent among athletes. Pain in the elbow can be caused by joint wear, inflammation or injury, or the combination of these. It makes the everyday life of patients a misery, impairing their ability to work, concentrate or relax. The pain and symptoms can be alleviated, but it is the basic cause that needs to be treated. If the cause of the elbow pain is an inflammation or an injury, it is easier to reach total painlessness, but in case of joint wear this is much more difficult. The pain often radiates from other areas to the outer edge of the elbow, which makes the treatment of tennis elbow difficult. This pain radiates mostly from the muscles: its so-called “trigger points” can be in the surrounding muscles of the lower arm, the forearm and the scapula, which need to be detected in order to carry out a full, effective and rapid treatment.

Treatment of Tennis Elbow with Conventional Therapy

Non-steroidal pain medication: Either prescription or over-the-counter drugs, to be taken regularly or periodically. They burden the stomach (e.g. nausea, vomiting) and the liver (e.g. abnormal liver function values) seriously, but the patient information leaflet also mentions headache or dizziness as possible side effects.
Dietary supplements for cartilage repair: These over-the-counter products are effective in cartilage regeneration, but some of them are overpriced, and they are often wrongly recommended by specialists in misdiagnosed cases (e.g. ligament inflammation). They need to be taken regularly, otherwise the regrown cartilage will wear off again.
Patches: Transdermal patches saturated with anti-inflammatory substance for local treatment. They are quite expensive to use and also not very effective, not to mention that they fall off easily (especially in case of perspiration) and make personal hygiene difficult to maintain.
Steroid tablets and injection: Very strong and nearly always efficient painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, with equally strong side effects. As they contain hormones, they impact the hormonal system as well: according to the patient information leaflet, they can cause e.g. menstrual disorder and a wide range of other side effects (peptic ulcer, cardiac arrhythmia, high blood pressure, seizures and more).
Physiotherapy: ultrasound, electrical treatment, shock wave therapy, contrast hydrotherapy etc. These methods are quite efficient, but many treatment sessions are required. Considering today’s healthcare system, it is hard to get this kind of treatment, and patients are usually prescribed less treatment sessions than they should receive in order to get healed. Another difficulty is that patients have to fit the treatment schedule in their lives.
Therapeutic exercises, massage: It is very important to get the joints moving, especially in case of rehabilitation after surgery. Many people avail of massage just for relaxation and recreation purposes, although it can also loosen up spastic muscles, and it can be used in combination with manual therapy for the correction of abnormal bone and joint positions. However, it cannot heal joint and ligament inflammation. In the long run it is costly, and many patients find it difficult (not least because of their pain) to visit a good specialist regularly, sometimes in another city or district.
Thermal spas, balneotherapy: Here patients can also receive physiotherapy, therapeutic exercises, massage etc. Hungary has several high-level balneotherapeutic facilities. However, patients may find it to leave their home for 2-4 weeks, spending their holiday in a spa, or going on sick leave. Of course, it is not cheap either.

Surgery: This is the final solution for many cases of elbow pain. But if it does not help either, how to go on?

Laser therapy performed with Safe Laser, developed as a result of a 40-year-long medical laser research, has pain relieving, inflammation reducing and biostimulating effects on the irradiated area.
In case of musculoskeletal problems, long-term irradiation has been observed to regenerate damaged joints, muscles and ligaments, resulting in the mitigation or even termination of complaints.

In case of acute elbow pain a 3-minute irradiation 2 or 3 times a day is recommended, while chronic elbow pain is to be treated with 4-minute irradiations every other day. In case of pain caused by tennis elbow or golf elbow a 10-minute treatment every other day is recommended. If the laser treatment is overdosed, the pain can increase temporarily (this is called treatment reaction), but it will disappear soon. Do not continue the treatment until the pain ceases. The treatment reaction stops after a few treatments.

In case of tennis elbowit is recommended to use Safe Laser 500 Infra